Russia launched on Tuesday May 3 “a mighty assault“, supported by tanks and infantry against the Azovstal factory, the last focus of Ukrainian resistance in Mariupol, announced a commander of the Azov battalion which defends the steelworks.
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“A powerful assault on the territory of Azovstal is currently 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 in a video message on Telegram.
“Currently, units of the Russian army and the Donetsk People’s Republic, using artillery and aircraft, begin to destroy” the “shooting positionsof Ukrainian fighters leaving the factory, said Vadim Astafiev, spokesperson for the Russian Ministry of Defense in a speech whose video was broadcast by Russian agencies. The spokesman for the Russian armed forces claimed that the Ukrainian Azov regiment, which is defending the plant, “used» the ceasefire, declared to evacuate civilians, to get out of the basements of the steelworks and «take up firing positions on the territory and in the factory buildings“.
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“We were shelled all night (…), two women were killed and now an Azovstal assault is underway“, for his part, declared Svyatoslav Palamar, deputy commander of the Azov regiment, to the information site Ukraïnska Pravda. He called on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to “a strong action because the situation is very difficult“. A hundred civilians were evacuated this weekend from the huge Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol, a strategic port in southern Donbass almost entirely under Russian control.
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