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Ukrainian officials said Russian forces on Saturday attacked a steel plant in the devastated port city of Mariupol, apparently in an attempt to eliminate the last pocket of Ukrainian resistance in the strategic city that the Kremlin claims its army has taken control of.
The announcement of the attack was made by an adviser to the Ukrainian presidency while about 1,000 civilians were sheltered in the Azovstal factory along with the remaining Ukrainian fighters.
Meanwhile Russian forces continued the offensive in the eastern Donbas region amid fierce Ukrainian counterattacks.
Presidential Adviser Oleksiy Arestovich told a news conference that Russian forces had resumed airstrikes on the massive coastal plant and were trying to force their way into it, which would be a change from an order issued by Russian President Vladimir Putin. days ago.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reported to Russian President Putin on Thursday that all of Mariupol, with the exception of Azovstal, had been “liberated” by the Russians.
The Russian president ordered him not to bring troops into the compound, but rather to block the facility, an apparent attempt to make Ukrainians starve to death and force them to surrender.
Ukrainian officials have estimated that about 2,000 of their bodies are inside the factory along with civilians sheltered in the facility’s underground tunnels. Mr Arestovic said Ukrainian forces were trying to withstand further attacks.
Meanwhile, the southern air force command of the Ukrainian armed forces said that two missiles hit a military facility and two residential buildings in the southern Ukrainian port city of Odessa on Saturday.
The Ukrainian air defense said in a statement that it destroyed two other missiles that also targeted the city.
Ukrainian presidential aide Andriy Yermak said five people had been killed and 18 injured.
The death toll has not been independently verified. The last major hit in or near Odessa was in early April.
“The sole purpose of the Russian missile attacks in Odessa is terror,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba wrote on Twitter. Russia has denied targeting civilians in what it calls a “special military operation” that began on February 24./Voa
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