Vladimir Putin seems to have given up on his siege strategy.

The Russian army and pro-Russian forces launched an offensive on the Azovstal factory on Tuesday.

Civilians have been evacuated in recent days from this last pocket of Ukrainian resistance in the city of Mariupol, in southeastern Ukraine.

"Currently, units of the Russian army and the Donetsk People's Republic, using artillery and aircraft, are beginning to destroy" the "firing positions" of Ukrainian fighters who came out of the factory, said Vadim Astafiev , spokesperson for the Russian Ministry of Defense in a speech, the video of which was released by Russian agencies.

"Take up firing positions"

The spokesman for the Russian armed forces claimed that the Ukrainian Azov regiment, which is defending the plant, "used" the declared ceasefire to evacuate civilians, to get out of the basements of the steel plant and “taking up firing positions on the territory and in the factory buildings”.

“We were shelled all night (…), two women were killed and now an assault on Azovstal is underway,” Sviatoslav Palamar, deputy commander of the Azov regiment, told the Ukraïnska Pravda news site. .

He called on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to "strong action because the situation is very difficult".

"A Mighty Onslaught"

A hundred civilians were evacuated this weekend from the huge Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol, a strategic port in southern Donbass almost entirely under Russian control.

"A powerful assault on the territory of Azovstal is currently underway, with the support of armored vehicles, tanks, with attempts to land troops, with the help of boats and a large number of elements of infantry,” Sviatoslav Palamar, deputy commander of the Azov regiment, said in a video message on Telegram.

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