• Invasion The plans of Russia and Ukraine to win the decisive battle in the Donbas

  • Russia unleashes artillery "hell" in Donbas offensive

Russia

has ceased military actions around

the Azovstal steelworks

in the besieged port city of

Mariupol so that the

Ukrainian

troops will

desist from continuing to resist the

war in Ukraine

, lay down their weapons for good and surrender without firing a single shot.

In addition to suspending "all military action", units of the Russian Armed Forces

and

the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic have withdrawn to "a safe distance" around the Azovstal perimeter, the military statement said.

And it is that

Russia

has announced the second phase of its

war in Ukraine,

centered on the

"complete liberation" of pro-Russian Donbas.

update narration

6.00

Soldiers in Mariupol: "we live perhaps our last days, if not hours"

A Ukrainian commander fighting in the last stronghold of

Mariupol

said troops were "perhaps living our last days, if not hours," and called on the international community to "remove" them, in a message posted on Facebook on Wednesday.

"The enemy outnumbers us ten to one," said Serguiy Volyna of the 36th Marine Brigade, holed up in a besieged factory in Azovstal.

"We call and implore all world leaders to help us. We ask them to use the extraction procedure and take us to the territory of a third country," he added.

It was not possible to verify the information provided by the two sides given the scale of the fighting and the lack of communications in

Mariupol

.

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05.58

Russia's operations in Ukraine are for the Pentagon the "prelude" to a larger offensive

The United States sees the ongoing Russian activity in eastern Ukraine as

"the prelude" to a much larger offensive

in the country, a senior US defense official said on Tuesday.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said

Russia was still ramping up its military capabilities to prepare for the new offensive

, introducing two additional battalion tactical groups (BTGs) in the past 24 hours to bring the total number to 78.

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05.55

About 20,000 mercenaries from the Wagner group, Libya and Syria are fighting in Ukraine

Up to 20,000 mercenaries from Russia's private military company Wagner group and others from Syria and Libya are fighting alongside Moscow's forces in

Ukraine

, a European official said on Tuesday.

"According to their capabilities, they are infantry. They don't have heavy vehicles or weapons. They are clearly infantry," the official told reporters in Washington, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"These guys are mainly used as a mass against the Ukrainian resistance," the official stressed.

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