Kyiv, Ukraine (AP) – As the number of defenders hiding in a steel plant in Mariupol dwindles, Russian commanders will come under increasing pressure to redeploy troops from the strategic southern port city to step up their offensive in eastern Ukraine. the British Ministry of Defense said Friday.
More than 1,700 defenders at the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol have surrendered since Monday, Russian officials said, in what appears to be the latest in a nearly three-month siege of the now-destroyed port city.
Fighting in the eastern Donbass has killed 12 people and destroyed 60 houses when Russia shelled neighboring cities of Severodonetsk and Lisichansk, northwest of Luhansk, District Governor Sergei Haidai told Telegram on Friday.
In addition to the artillery attack on Thursday, Russian ground forces tried to attack Severodonetsk, but suffered casualties and withdrew, Ukraine’s General Staff said in a morning update.
In Mariupol, an unknown number of defenders remain in the vast Azovstal complex, the last bastion of Ukrainian resistance in the city, a target since the invasion that has been under effective Russian control for some time.
If the factory falls, Russia is likely to use troops from the city to step up operations elsewhere in the Donbass industrial region, but the duration of tough resistance will complicate or prolong the maneuver, the British Defense Ministry said in a daily intelligence report.
“Ukraine’s persistent resistance in Mariupol since the start of the war means that Russian forces in the region must be re-equipped and renewed before they can be redeployed effectively,” the ministry wrote on Twitter.
“However, Russian commanders are under pressure to achieve visible operational goals. This means that Russia is likely to redeploy its forces quickly without adequate training, which risks further depletion.
Analysts say it is likely that most of the Russian forces involved in the battle there have already left.
However, it is not clear how long the remaining troops at the Azovstal plant can last.
In a brief video message Thursday, the deputy commander of the Azov Regiment, who led the defense of the steel plant, said he and other fighters were still inside.
“An operation is underway, the details of which I will not disclose,” said Svyatoslav Palamar.
Ukrainian troops, backed by Western weapons, thwarted Russia’s original goal of storming the capital, Kyiv, and resisted Moscow’s forces in the Donbas, which President Vladimir Putin has now set out to seize.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said on Thursday it had collected personal information from hundreds of soldiers who had surrendered – name, date of birth, closest relative – and registered them as prisoners as part of its welfare role. to prisoners of war under the Geneva Conventions.
Amnesty International tweeted that the status of a prisoner of war means that soldiers “should not be subjected to any form of torture or ill-treatment.”
At least some of the fighters were taken by the Russians to a former penal colony in territory controlled by Moscow-backed separatists. Others were hospitalized, according to a separatist spokesman.
Russian state television has released a video showing wounded Ukrainian soldiers from the Azovstal plant in a hospital in the Donetsk region.
The disheveled men, three in one room, lay in bed while being fed and monitored by doctors and nurses. A doctor identified only as Natalia said most were in serious condition with multiple fractures and many would need limb prostheses.
An unidentified Ukrainian patient shuddered and groaned as a nurse changed the bandage on his leg.
“The most important thing is that the leg was saved,” he said in Russian. “The pain can be endured.”
While Ukraine expressed hope of exchanging prisoners, Russian authorities threatened to investigate and prosecute some of Azovstal’s war crimes fighters, calling them “Nazis” and criminals.
The far-right background of the Azov Regiment was seized by the Kremlin as part of efforts to portray Russia’s invasion as a battle against Nazi influence in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, in the first war crimes trial led by Ukraine, Sergeant. Vadim Shishimarin, a 21-year-old member of a Russian tank unit, told a court in Kyiv on Thursday that he had shot Alexander Shelipov, a 62-year-old Ukrainian civilian, in the head on the orders of an officer.
Shishimarin apologized to the victim’s widow, Katerina Shelipova, who described seeing her husband shot right in front of their home in the early days of the Russian invasion.
She told the court that she believes Shishimarin deserves a life sentence, the maximum possible, but she would not mind if he was exchanged as part of an exchange for Azovstal defenders.
In addition, more US aid appears to be on the way to Ukraine when the Senate overwhelmingly approves a $ 40 billion package of military and economic aid to the country and its allies. The chamber voted on this last week. President Joe Biden’s quick signature was assured.
“The help is on the way, really significant help. “Aid that can ensure that Ukrainians win,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
In other events, General Mark Millie, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke by telephone with his Russian counterpart on Thursday for the first time since the start of the war, and they agreed to keep communications open, the Pentagon said.
___
McQueen reported from Lviv. Associated Press journalists Juras Karmanau from Lviv, Andrea Rosa in Kharkov and Aamer Madhani in Washington and other PA officials around the world.
___
Follow the coverage of the AP for the war in Ukraine:
Add Comment