Russian forces continue their offensive on the Azovstal steelworks, the last pocket of Ukrainian resistance in Mariupol, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense said on Friday, while a UN convoy is expected to evacuate civilians still taking refuge in the plant.
Russian forces have, “in some areas, with the support of the air force, resumed operations aimed at taking control of the factory” and “the blockade of (Ukrainian) defense units continues”, the ministry said in a statement.
The statement does not mention a truce while the Russian army announced Wednesday evening that it would respect a unilateral ceasefire for three days, from Thursday to Saturday, to allow the evacuation of civilians from this huge steelworks.
But a Ukrainian commander at the plant said on Thursday that they were “not keeping their promise” of a truce.
Taking Azovstal would allow Moscow to claim full control of Mariupol, a strategic port at the southern tip of the Donbass which had nearly 500,000 inhabitants before the war but was devastated by two months of siege and bombardment.
So far Russia has claimed full control of only one major Ukrainian city, Kherson.
Ukrainians have indicated in recent days that they suspect Moscow of wanting to hold a military parade in Mariupol on May 9, the day when Russians mark the anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in 1945 with a large parade in Red Square .
An adviser to the Ukrainian presidency, Mykhailo Podoliak, also accused Moscow on Friday of wanting to parade Ukrainian prisoners on this occasion, as the pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine had done in 2014 after to capture the great city of Donetsk.
“On September 24, 2014, a parade of prisoners was held in Donetsk. They had soldiers of the Ukrainian army marching through the streets, garbage was being thrown at them. Eight years later, the Kremlin decided to play it again on May 9 in Mariupol, with civilians in military uniform,” he said on Twitter.
Russia has not confirmed any of this information. The pro-Russian separatist authorities in the region simply said that road signs in Russian had been installed around the city, replacing those in Ukrainian and English.