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Puffs of black smoke over the Azovstal steelworks
Photo: ALEXANDER ERMOCHENKO / REUTERS
Russia's military and pro-Russian separatists have launched an offensive on the Azovstal steelworks in the heavily contested port city of Mariupol.
The factory premises are apparently not only being shelled with artillery and from the air - according to Ukrainian media, Moscow's troops are said to have also started to storm the factory.
"They bombed us from the air all night (...) and now Azovstal is being stormed," the newspaper Ukrajinska Pravda quoted the deputy commander of the Ukrainian Azov regiment, Svyatoslav Palamar, as saying on Tuesday.
Two civilians were also killed in the recent Russian attacks, Palamar said.
The information cannot be verified at this time.
The strategically important port city of Mariupol in south-eastern Ukraine is almost entirely under Russian control.
The steelworks is now the last bastion of the Ukrainian resistance in the city.
From the Russian side there was initially no official confirmation that the industrial site was being stormed.
However, the state news agency Ria Novosti, citing a Defense Ministry spokesman, reported that entrenched Azov fighters used a cease-fire to return to their firing positions at the plant.
These would now be attacked with artillery and from the air.
In recent days, thanks to a ceasefire, civilians who had taken refuge in a system of tunnels beneath the factory premises had been evacuated.
Another 101 people evacuated
In addition to Ukrainian fighters, around 200 civilians are said to be stuck on the factory premises.
Over the weekend, more than 120 people were rescued with international help.
While another evacuation campaign failed on Monday, another 101 people were successfully rescued from the plant on Tuesday, according to the UN.
Most of them have already arrived in Zaporizhia, UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Ukraine Osnat Lubrani said, according to Reuters news agency.
"Thanks to the rescue operation, after two months, 101 women, men, children and the elderly were finally able to leave the bunkers under the Azovstal Steelworks and see the light of day," she said.
Mariupol was besieged shortly after the start of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine on February 24 and had been largely occupied by Russian troops in the past few days.
Overall, Mariupol is said to still have 100,000 of the original more than 400,000 inhabitants.
col/dpa/AFP/Reuters