On Thursday, Russian troops continued to try to seize the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, where the last Ukrainian forces are in the city.

That's what Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said in the afternoon.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov presented the situation differently. The plant was only being besieged.

Peskov recalled a statement by Russian President Vladimir Putin on April 21: "The President and Commander-in-Chief gave orders to refrain from storming, he did not announce any other orders." In one of his rare public statements on the war, Putin said at the time: " We must protect the lives and health of our soldiers and officers.”

Gerhard Gnauck

Political correspondent for Poland, Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania based in Warsaw.

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On Thursday night, Ukrainian President Selenskyj said in a video speech that 150 people were able to be brought from the plant to safety on Wednesday.

He hopes for a sequel because there are still women and children there.

Those who have been buried are shoveled free “with their bare hands” because clearing technology cannot currently be used.

It was initially unclear whether an evacuation would also succeed on Thursday.

Naval commander missing since May 1st

Getting information about the situation around the plant has become very difficult.

The commander of the plant's marines, Serhiy "Volyna" Volynsky, has not spoken on Facebook since May 1.

Mayor Vadym Boychenko, who appears to be outside the area occupied by the Russian army, said contact with the defenders was temporarily lost.

He appealed to the world community to continue rescuing civilians from the plant, including 30 children.

A commander of the National Guard, Denys Prokopenko, said in a video message from the plant on Thursday: "This is the second day since the enemy entered the Azovstal compound.

Heavy, bloody fighting is taking place.” The situation is “extremely difficult”.

But obey the order to continue the defense.

Another commander of the units entrenched at the plant called on Zelenskyy "to take care of the wounded soldiers who die in agony due to lack of proper treatment" and to ensure dignified burials for the dead.

"The opponent does not adhere to any ethical norms, conventions or laws."

Allegedly 600 Ukrainian soldiers killed

Fighting between Russian and Ukrainian units also continued outside of Mariupol.

The Defense Ministry in Moscow reported on Thursday that 600 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed the night before and 61 pieces of "weapons and military equipment", including three airplanes, had been destroyed.

Several positions and fortified installations of the Ukrainian armed forces were hit.

The Russian air force attacked 93 targets, which were said to be military only.

Ukrainian media reported that several civilians had been killed and on Thursday showed images from the damaged Orthodox Lavra Monastery in Svyatohirsk in the Donbass, where refugees are being housed and where several people were injured after Russian airstrikes.

At the same time, the Ukrainian military reported 200 Russian soldiers killed, two planes shot down and 15 tanks destroyed over the past day.