The information coming from Mariupol is confusing, but very worrying.
Wednesday May 4, according to the testimony of the mayor of the city, Vadym Boychenko, relayed by The Guardianthe Azovstal steelworks (where the last Ukrainian soldiers are entrenched) would have been targeted by heavy artillery and tank fire, by the air force, and even by Russian ships which would have approached the port. “Our brave guys are defending this fortress, specified the aedile, but unfortunately today we have lost connection with them, and we cannot know if they are safe or not.”
According to the Italian daily Corriere della Serawhich quotes a Ukrainian journalist, it would no longer be just a matter of bombardments, since “Russian forces broke into the Azovstal factory, where intense fighting is ongoing”.
Information impossible to verify and which has certainly not been confirmed by Moscow, which even denies that an attack is underway in the factory where, according to the Ukrainians, very many civilians (including children) are still refugees.
Be that as it may, Mariupol remains at the center of Western media attention, and today an investigation by the American agency Associated Press re-estimated upwards the number of victims of the bombing of the Mariupol theater, which occurred in March. Thus, the death toll (civilians) would not be 300, but rather 600 people, according to media estimates. A carnage which further reinforces the image of Mariupol as a martyr city of this war.