Ukrainian serviceman walks past the turret of a Russian tank next to a destroyed petrol station in the village of Skybyn, northeast of Kyiv on May 2, 2022. – AFP photo
MOSCOW (May 3): The Russian army said today its forces and pro-Moscow separatists were using artillery and planes to target Azovstal, the steel plant in the city of Mariupol where Ukrainian fighters are making their last stand.
The Russian defence ministry accused members of the Azov battalion and other Ukrainian troops of using a pause in fighting to once again take up their combat positions at the plant.
“Using artillery and aircraft, units of the Russian army and the Donetsk People’s Republic are beginning to destroy” the “firing positions” of the Ukrainian troops, the defence ministry said in a statement carried by Russian news agencies.
Mariupol is among the most battered cities in Ukraine.
Kyiv said more than 100 civilians were evacuated over the weekend from the sprawling Azovstal plant, the last holdout of Ukrainian forces in Mariupol, where soldiers and civilians have been sheltering in a maze of underground tunnels. – AFP