Russia renews attempts to take Mariupol steel plant housing last Ukrainian resistance in city

Ukraine invasion: Russian forces try to storm Azovstal steel complex in Mariupol, where Ukrainian soldiers and civilians are holed up

The southern port city of Mariupol has been reduced to rubble after having been under siege from Russian forces for several weeks
The southern port city of Mariupol has been reduced to rubble after having been under siege from Russian forces for several weeks

Russian forces have resumed attempts to storm the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol where the last of the Ukrainian resistance is holed up, Ukraine says.

There are an estimated 2,000 Ukrainian fighters and 1,000 civilians in the huge steel plant that is completely surrounded by the Russian military.

Mariupol has been under siege for weeks and is a strategic node for Russian forces that want to create a corridor between Ukraine’s eastern regions and Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014.

The city has been reduced to rubble with thousands of civilians reported dead.

Earlier this week, Russian President Vladimir Putin called off the attack on the steel plant, ordering troops to seal off every entry and exit point.

However, Ukraine has said that Russian troops have renewed their attempts to control the vast complex, which has a network of tunnels beneath it.

On Saturday, a video was published by Ukrainian forces that appears to show women and children sheltering in a bunker under the steel plant.

Meanwhile, British defence intelligence reported that Russian forces have made no major gains in the last 24 hours, despite increased activity along the eastern front. Moscow has yet to establish full control of either air or sea, the update says.

Russia, however, claims a range of successes as its air force targeted multiple Ukrainian military facilities overnight. Shelling was also reported in the central city of Dnipro and the southern port of Odesa.

Russia withdrew its forces from the north of Ukraine and redeployed them to the east of in a bid to capture the Donbas region, where pro-Russian separatists have been waging war since 2014.

Various statements by Russian government officials suggest the plan is to capture all the east and south of Ukraine, cutting off the country’s access to the Black Sea.