Despite Kyiv’s offer yesterday to the Russian forces to withdraw the last of the combat soldiers stuck in the huge steel plant in the city of Maroyubl in southern Ukraine, it seems that the Russian bombing continued on the “Azovestal” plant, which has attracted international attention during the past few weeks.
Today, Thursday, the Ukrainian army announced that Russian forces are continuing air strikes on the sprawling steel factory in the coastal city, which has become almost destroyed.
The General Staff also clarified, in its operational statement for the 78th day of the Russian military operation, that Russia fired artillery shells and grenades at Ukrainian forces in the Zaporizhia axis, which was a haven for civilians fleeing from Mariupol, according to the Associated Press.
Click to advance east
In addition, it added that it was pressing to advance towards towns in eastern Ukraine. And it indicated that it bombed with artillery the Ukrainian units north of the city of Kharkiv, in the northeast of the country.
Russian forces also targeted the Chernihiv and Sumy regions in the north.
The Ukrainian army also noted that the Russians had achieved only “partial success” in their advance through the Donetsk and Lugansk regions in the east of the country.
Fighters in Azovstal (Reuters)
The trapped fighters
It is noteworthy that the Ukrainian government had announced yesterday, Wednesday, that it was looking for a practical solution to the issue of the fighters trapped in Azovstal, and suggested that Moscow evacuate its seriously wounded fighters in exchange for the release of Russian prisoners.
However, Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshuk made it clear at the same time that the talks have not made progress so far.
The past days witnessed the exit of all the women and children from the steel factory besieged by the Russian forces, but a number of fighters affiliated with the Azov Brigade, whom Russia accuses of extremism and Nazism, refused to surrender and leave.
