KYIV — fighting between Ukrainian and
Russian forces is “ongoing” in the strategic port of Mariupol, the local
governor told CNN Tuesday.
“There is fighting ongoing in Mariupol. This is
street fighting,” said Pavlo Kyrylenko, governor of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk
region.
اضافة اعلان
Ukrainian forces there are “under heavy bombardment”
but “continue to defend Mariupol.”
“There are certain districts where street fighting
is continuing. I can’t say the Russians are controlling them,” Kyrylenko said,
adding that the fighting was “not just small arms fighting, but also tank
fighting.”
It is not possible to verify information given by
either side given the scale of the fighting and lack of communications.
Russian forces are believed to have gradually pushed
their way into the city, pinning Ukrainian troops down to the giant Azovstal
factory near the port, which is equipped with vast underground tunnels.
Some Ukrainian officials said Tuesday that Russian
forces hit a hospital near the Azovstal plant, but gave different accounts on
possible victims.
Local businessman and MP Serhiy Taruta said on
Facebook that 300 people were in the building when it was hit, but Mariupol
mayoral advisor Petro Andryushchenko later said “nobody is hiding in the zone
around Azovstal, especially in the already destroyed hospital, for some time.”
Svyatoslav Palamar, a commander in the nationalist
Azov battalion defending Mariupol, told local media that “the Azovstal factory
was bombed and almost entirely destroyed.”
Russia on Tuesday called on Ukrainian forces in
Mariupol to “immediately” lay down their arms in a new ultimatum.
Its defense ministry said Ukrainian forces still
holed up inside Azvostal were facing a “catastrophic situation”.
“Everyone who lays down their arms will be
guaranteed survival,” it said.
Mariupol’s city council said Monday that hundreds of
civilians are also taking shelter in the factory.
“There are at least 1,000 civilians in the
underground shelters of the metallurgical plant. Mostly women with children and
the elderly,” it said on Telegram.
Russia last week claimed that more than a thousand
Ukrainian soldiers had surrendered in Mariupol from a separate factory.
According to pro-Russian Ukrainian separatists,
several hundred others are still fighting from within the huge Azovstal
factory.
Thousands of civilians are believed to have been
killed in the city, with those escaping speaking of harrowing conditions.
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