The end of the fighting in Mariupol, this large strategic port city in the Donetsk region on the Sea of Azov, would be a matter of a few days, believe many observers in the Russian press. The separatist forces of the self-proclaimed republic of Donetsk, supported by the Russian army, announced that the fighting was now concentrated on the last bastion of resistance of the Ukrainian armed forces gathered on the territory of the large Azovstal metallurgical complex.
The representative of the National Militia of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), Eduard Basurin, affirmed on the first Russian television channel that approximately “3,500 Ukrainian fighters” were on the Azovstal site, relays the Russian economic newspaper RBK. But that their total number could be much greater, account