L‘Russian army and pro-Russian forces launched an offensive on Tuesday, May 3, on the Azovstal steelworks, the last pocket of Ukrainian resistance in the city of Mariupol. “A powerful assault on the territory of Azovstal is underway, with the support of armored vehicles, tanks, with attempts to land troops, with the help of boats and a large number of infantry elements “said Sviatoslav Palamar, deputy commander of the Azov regiment – which defends the site – in a video message on Telegram.
“Units of the Russian army and the People’s Republic of Donetsk, using artillery and aircraft, are beginning to destroy” the “firing positions” of Ukrainian fighters who came out of the factory, Vadim Astafiev said, door spokesman of the Russian Ministry of Defense in an address, earlier in the day on Tuesday.
This same spokesman had argued that the Ukrainian Azov regiment had “used” the declared ceasefire to evacuate civilians, to get out of the basements of the steelworks and “to take up firing positions on the territory and in the factory buildings ». On the Ukrainian side, it is indicated that Russian bombardments took place “all night”. “Two women were killed,” Sviatoslav Palamar, deputy commander of the Azov regiment, told the Ukraïnska Pravda news site. The latter adding that at least a dozen civilians were injured in this new offensive.
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The Ukrainian commander also assured “do everything” to repel the offensive of Vladimir Putin’s troops. The latter also calls for “immediate measures to evacuate the civilians” still holed up with the Ukrainian fighters on this huge metallurgical site of Mariupol.
Deadly strike in the Donestk region
At the same time, at least ten people died and fifteen were injured in a Russian strike on a factory in Avdiivka, a town near the front line in the east of the country, the governor of the region of Donetsk. “At least ten dead, fifteen injured: the consequences of the bombardment of the Avdiivka coke factory by the Russian occupier”, specified on Telegram Pavlo Kyrylenko. The latter added that the “number of victims could probably be higher”. He also accused Moscow of having targeted “the workers (who) had just finished their shift and were waiting for the bus at the stop”.
With a population of 30,000, the town of Avdiivka is located on the front line, just a few kilometers from Donestk, one of the “capitals” of the pro-Russian separatists. The city has been the scene of heavy fighting since the outbreak in 2014 of a war between kyiv and Russian-backed separatists. In 2017, 27 people, civilians and soldiers, died there in the space of a week during a resumption of fighting.
Since February 24, the day the war was launched on Ukrainian soil, the situation had remained relatively calm in this area. The city was bombed on April 24. The factory targeted by the strike on Tuesday employed 4,000 workers. It was one of the largest coal-fired coke factories in Ukraine.
In Mariupol, a hundred civilians evacuated
At the same time, a hundred civilians were finally able to be exfiltrated from the huge Mariupol steelworks. An evacuation described as “successful” by the UN on Tuesday. “I am happy and relieved to confirm that 101 civilians have been successfully evacuated from the Azovstal Metallurgical Plant,” UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Ukraine Osnat Lubrani said in a statement. These survivors had been stuck for several weeks in the Ukrainian industrial complex. The transfer began during the weekend of 1er may.
On Twitter, the UN humanitarian coordinator posted a photograph of her in front of a convoy of more than a dozen buses stopped on a road. “People I have traveled with have told me heartbreaking stories of the hell they have been through. I think of the people who remain trapped. We will do everything in our power to help them,” she wrote.
According to the UN, this evacuation operation was launched on Friday April 29, after recent visits by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres to Moscow and kyiv. The international envoy also indicated that 58 people joined the convoy from Mangouch, in the suburbs of Mariupol. In all, 127 people were accompanied to Zaporijjia, 230 kilometers to the northwest, a territory controlled by Ukrainian forces. Some evacuees decided not to go that far, she said. Agence France-Presse journalists saw at least five buses arrive at a reception center set up to accommodate these Ukrainians.
I’m relieved to confirm that the safe passage operation from Mariupol has been successful.
The people I traveled with told me heartbreaking stories of the hell they went through.I’m thinking about the people who remain trapped. We will do all we can to assist them. pic.twitter.com/mEqTTKZKA8
—Osnat Lubrani (@OsnatLubrani) May 3, 2022
The Red Cross expected more people
The survivors “are receiving initial humanitarian aid, including health care and psychological care”, she added. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which participated in the evacuations, said in a statement that some of those evacuated were injured. “Similar agreements between the parties are urgently needed to alleviate the immense suffering of civilians caught up in the hostilities,” said Pascal Hundt, head of the ICRC delegation in Ukraine.
“We hoped that many more people could join the convoy and leave this hell,” he added during a press conference, calling on Moscow and kyiv to “urgently” agree on other evacuations. He explained, moreover, that he did not know how many civilians were still present in the gigantic industrial complex.
“We are so grateful to everyone who has helped us. There was a moment when we lost hope, we thought everyone had forgotten about us,” one of the evacuees, Anna Zaïtseva, told Agence France-Presse. And this, while she carried in her arms her 6-month-old baby, Sviatosla.
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London to increase military aid
Speaking by videoconference to the Ukrainian Parliament, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that the aid provided by the United Kingdom would be increased. And this, so that no one can “attack the country”, he explained. The new £300 million plan is expected to include “radar to locate artillery bombarding your cities, heavy-lift drones to supply your forces, and thousands of night vision devices “, specified the conservative leader of the English government.
So far, London has already released £450 million in military aid to Kyiv. The British, for example, sent several thousand light anti-tank missiles. They also recently promised to send armored vehicles for evacuations, anti-ship missiles and anti-aircraft defense systems.
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Boris Johnson acknowledged that the West had been “too slow to grasp what was happening” and to sanction Moscow: “We cannot repeat this mistake,” he said to Ukrainian parliamentarians. The leader, who met Volodymyr Zelensky last April, hailed the resistance of the Ukrainians, who repelled Russian forces “from the gates of kyiv” and “accomplished the greatest feat of arms of the 21stand century “. “You have destroyed the myth of the invincibility of [Vladimir] Putin and you wrote one of the most glorious chapters in the military history and in the life of your country,” he said.