• Ukrainian War From the "hell" of Azovstal to a luxury hotel in Zaporizhia

  • Russia The mysterious fires that are destroying the Russian strategic industry

Russian

troops

have begun the final assault on the

Azovstal

steel mill

in

Mariupol

on the 70th day of the

war in Ukraine,

both the Azov Regiment, which defends the steel facility, and Ukrainian police sources have reported.

"Throughout the night they bombed us from the air, two civilians, women, were killed, and now the assault on

Azovstal

is taking place ," they said.

The first civilians evacuated from the steel mill arrived in Zaporizhia on Tuesday, which is already prepared to receive and care for these refugees who have spent almost two months hiding under

Russian

bombing in the

Ukraine war

.

update narration

6.00

Russia launches a "powerful attack" against the last stronghold of Ukrainian resistance in Mariupol

Russian forces launched a "powerful attack" on Tuesday against the

Azovstal

steel mill , the last stronghold of Ukrainian resistance in the devastated city of

Mariupol

(southeast), after a ceasefire that allowed the evacuation of a hundred civilians.

"A powerful attack in the

Azovstal

area is currently under way, supported by armor and tanks," Sviatoslav Palamar, deputy commander of

the Azov battalion

defending the facility, said in a video message on Telegram.

Previously, the Russian Ministry of Defense, quoted by Russian agencies, had announced that "units of the Russian army and the Donetsk People's Republic, using artillery and aircraft, began to destroy" the "firing positions" of the Ukrainian fighters who left of the plant.

The "Donetsk People's Republic" is one of two pro-Russian separatist enclaves in Ukraine's Donbas region.

According to the spokesman for the Russian armed forces, the Azov battalion "used" the ceasefire -- which had been decreed to evacuate civilians from the steel mill -- to "take firing positions on the territory and in the buildings of the factory".

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