Time.news – The Russian forces have completely eliminated the defenders from the urban area of Mariupol and only no more than 2,500 fighters remain who resist in the Azovstal steel plant “whose only chance of survival is to lay down their weapons“This was stated by the spokesman of the Russian Defense, Igor Konashenkov, explaining how by now the town overlooking the Black Sea has practically fallen into the hands of Moscow.
Russian forces also reported that they shot down a transport plane near Odessa carrying “a large quantity of Western weapons”.
Given several times as close to the fall in weeks of siege that created a frightening humanitarian crisis, Mariupol tried to resist. The Russian forces have proposed surrender to the hundreds of marines and fighters of the Azov regiment who, barricaded in the steel plant, repel their assaults, thanks to the dense network of underground tunnels built in Soviet times to protect themselves from a nuclear attack.
Zelensky’s position
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, however, fears that, if they lay down their weapons, they would be massacred and warned that the “elimination” of the last defenders of the port city “will put an end to any peace negotiations” with Moscow.
Zelensky dictates the conditions encouraged by the sinking of the Moskva, the flagship of the Russian Black Sea fleet, a setback to which Russia reacted by hitting a factory in the Kiev region yesterday. The site produced Neptune missiles which the Ukrainian army claims to have used against the Russian cruiser.
Finally, the president said he was willing to meet the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, “as soon as possible”, also because “I don’t think a single meeting will be enough”. “I don’t think it’s possible to meet once and agree on everything because there are still many open questions.” And again: “I still don’t know for what issues the Russians will choose our option and for which we will choose their option”
The open fronts
Another Ukrainian war plant, a tank factory in Darnytsky on the outskirts of Kiev, was the target of today. a Russian attack which, according to the mayor of Kiev, Vitali Klitschko, resulted in one death and some injured. The operation was claimed by the Russian defense, which yesterday warned that it would intensify the attacks on the Ukrainian capital.
In Lysychanks, Donetsk, a fire broke out in an oil refinery. According to local authorities, the flames were caused by a Russian bombing. The Russian media confirm the news of the fire but, for the moment, do not speculate the reasons. “The fire is still being extinguished,” Haidai added on Telegram, “this is not the first time the refinery has been hit. It was systematically hit to exhaust the resources of the State Emergency Services “.
“There is no more fuel there, it is the oil residues that are burning,” the governor said. Haidai then reported violent fighting in the center of Lysychansk, a city close to the Donbass front line, where the clashes are increasingly heavy, so much so as to interfere with planned evacuation operations.
Nehammer: “Putin has no faith in the international community”
Russian President Vladimir Putin “believes he is winning the war”. The only Western leader to have met the head of the Kremlin after the invasion of Ukraine: the Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer told NBC.
“I think now it’s in his logic of war, you know? He believes that war was necessary to guarantee security to the Russian Federation”, explained Nehammer, “he has no faith in the international community. He accuses the Ukrainians of genocide in the Donbass region. , now being in his world, he believes he is winning the war “