(AP) — Russian forces pushed forward Monday in their assault on Ukraine, seeking to capture the crucial southern port city of Mariupol as Moscow prepared to celebrate its Victory Day holiday.
Determined to show success in a war now in its 11th week, Russian troops were pummeling a seaside steel mill where an estimated 2,000 Ukrainian fighters were making what appeared to be their last stand to save Mariupol from falling.
The mill is the only part of the city not overtaken by the invaders. Its defeat would deprive Ukraine of a vital port and allow Russia to establish a land corridor to the Crimean Peninsula, which it seized from Ukraine in 2014.The Ukraine General Staff warned of a high probability of missile strikes and said that in Russian-controlled areas of Zaporizhzhia, Russian troops were seizing “personal documents from the local population without good reason.” Ukraine’s military alleged Russian troops were seizing documents to force residents to join in Victory Day commemorations.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned the anniversary, which marks Russia’s triumph over Nazi Germany in 1945, could bring a renewed onslaught. Russian President Vladimir Putin may want to proclaim a win in Ukraine when he addresses troops parading on Red Square.
“They have nothing to celebrate,” Linda Thomas-Greenfield, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said of the Russians, speaking on CNN. “They have not succeeded in defeating the Ukrainians. They have not succeeded in dividing the world or dividing NATO. And they have only succeeded in isolating themselves internationally and becoming a pariah state around the globe.”
Battles were being waged on multiple fronts but Russia was closest to victory in Mariupol.Ukrainian fighters in the steel mill rejected Russian-set deadlines for laying down their arms as attacks continued by warplanes, artillery and tanks.
“We are under constant shelling,” said Capt. Sviatoslav Palamar, deputy commander of the Ukrainian Azov Regiment, a unit holding the steel mill.
Lt. Illya Samoilenko, another Azov Regiment member, said a couple hundred wounded soldiers were in the plant. He declined to say how many able-bodied fighters remained. Fighters lack lifesaving equipment and are having to dig by hand to free people from bunkers that collapsed under shelling.
“Surrender for us is unacceptable because we cannot grant such a gift to the enemy,” Samoilenko said.
