Ukraine War: Battle for Mariupol rages - Azov regiment announces fight to the death

Created: 05/09/2022, 04:50

By: Julius Fastnacht, Tobias Utz, Teresa Toth, Tanja Banner, Nail Akkoyun, Andreas Apetz, Lucas Maier

In Mariupol, the evacuation of civilians succeeds.

Meanwhile, the Russian military uses the ceasefire to set up new posts in the besieged city.

• War in Ukraine: Ukraine fears merciless fighting for the Mariupol steelworks.

• Fight to the death:

  Azov Regiment sees fighting to the end as the only course of action in the Ukraine war.

• New Russian bases:

  The Russian military is using the ceasefire in the Ukraine war to set up new posts.

• Mariupol is to fall:

  Russia's President Vladimir Putin is calling on Kiev to surrender in Mariupol.

• You can read everything about the Ukraine conflict in our current news ticker.

  This is continuously updated.

+++ 19:32:

Illia Samoilenko, intelligence officer and fighter of the Azov regiment, stated that the defenders of the besieged city of Mariupol have four options, the only acceptable one of which is combat.

The other options are, firstly, to lay down your arms and wait for death by bombing or starvation, secondly, you can run away "like a coward" and only think about your own life, and thirdly, you can surrender - which also includes death mean.

The enemy is violating all the rules and customs of war.

They have clear evidence of this: a comrade filmed himself surrendering to the Russians and calling on them to do the same.

A few days later, his mother got a message from his cell phone with a photo of her dead son.

According to Samoilenko, the Russian soldiers had strangled the prisoner.

Captivity by the Russians means certain death, according to Illia Samoilenko, an officer in the Azov regiment.

© Euronews/Screenshot

War in Ukraine: Russian military uses ceasefire and builds new bases

+++ 3.10 p.m .:

Russia and Ukraine have agreed on a ceasefire for the duration of the evacuation of civilians from Mariupol.

However, according to the Ukrainian news service Kyiv-Independent, Russian troops are using this ceasefire to set up new bases and attack the steelworks.

While all of Mariupol has been taken by the Russian army, it is still under Ukrainian control.

However, Russian soldiers are currently trying to storm the steelworks.

War in Ukraine: Ukrainian military attack occupied Snake Island

+++ 1:15 p.m .:

According to the President of the Russian Republic of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, Chechen troops are stationed in Ukraine.

Kadyrov is an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin and therefore supports him in his war of aggression.

In a video posted online, Kadyrov boasted that Chechen units had not suffered any casualties, contrary to reports from the Ukrainian government.

"To date, this minute, we have not had a single dead or wounded, not a single man has had a runny nose," Kadyrov said.

"The President (Putin) made the right decision and we will carry out his orders no matter what," the Chechen politician stressed.

War in Ukraine: Ukrainian military attack occupied Snake Island

+++ 11.12 a.m .:

Ukraine has apparently attacked the Russian-occupied Snake Island again.

The US news agency Associated Press (AP) analyzed satellite images showing smoke over the Black Sea island in two different places.

According to the AP, a fire could also be seen.

Both several buildings on the island and a landing ship are said to have been destroyed in the attacks.

Ukraine war: "All women, children and old people" evacuated from steel mill

+++ 8.20 a.m .:

After all civilians have been taken out of the steelworks in Mariupol, Ukraine fears merciless fighting between the soldiers who are entrenched there and the Russian troops.

The Ukrainian general staff announced on Sunday morning that the units in the steelworks area were still blocked.

There are "Russian attacks" with "support from artillery and tank attacks".

War in Ukraine: Selenskyj hopes for rescue of soldiers in steel mill

Update from Sunday, May 8th, 6:20 a.m.:

 After the evacuation of the last civilians from the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol, Ukraine is hoping for the rescue of its wounded and soldiers.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyj spoke on Saturday evening of a possible second phase of the evacuation that is being prepared.

Russian forces, meanwhile, continued to attack the factory, which is the last Ukrainian bastion in the largely devastated port city.

Ukraine war: 'All women, children and old people' evacuated from Mariupol steel mill

+++ 10:50 p.m .:

Deputy Ukrainian Prime Minister Iryna Wereshchuk wrote a letter to the organization Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and asked them to evacuate and provide medical care to the soldiers entrenched in the Azov steelworks in Mariupol.

Defenders of the huge industrial complex have been "under constant bombardment and attacks by the Russian army" for 72 days, and "lack of medicines, water and food, the wounded soldiers are dying of gangrene and blood poisoning," the statement said.

The organization should help the soldiers whose "human rights are violated by the Russian Federation".

+++ 9:20 p.m .:

After “all women, children and old people” were evacuated from the Azovstal steelworks near Mariupol, the commander of the 36th Ukrainian naval brigade, Serhiy Volyna, draws attention to the fate of the people who are still in stop the steelworks, which is besieged and repeatedly attacked by Russian troops.

Volyna is asking the world to make "every effort" to evacuate the remaining Ukrainian soldiers.

It seems like "a hell of a reality show" but "everything is real," the Kyiv Independent quoted Volyna as saying.

There is “pain, suffering, hunger, torment, tears, fear and death”.

Ukraine war: 'All women, children and old people' evacuated from Mariupol steel mill

+++ 6.30 p.m .:

There is good news around the Azovstal steelworks in the port city of Mariupol: “All women, children and old people” were evacuated from the steelworks, according to Deputy Ukrainian Prime Minister Iryna Wereschuk.

"The President's order was carried out," Vereshchuk said.

"This part of the humanitarian operation in Mariupol has been completed."

Ukrainian troops sink Russian landing craft

+++ 17.43:

As the government in Ukraine announced, Ukrainian troops shot down a landing craft of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.

"An enemy Serna-type landing craft was destroyed in the waters of the Black Sea," press chief of the Odessa military administration Serhiy Brachuk said via Telegram.

He attached a video to the message, which is said to show the ship being shot at by a drone.

Ukraine War: Russia takes Odessa under rocket fire

+++ 1.40 p.m .:

The main events of the Ukraine war are taking place in the east of the country.

But the west of the country is also affected.

According to local authorities, four Russian rockets fell in Odessa Oblast.

This is the area around the port city of Odessa in the southwest of the country.

Infrastructure was damaged, but no one was injured.

Ukraine War: Mariupol to be captured by May 9th

+++ 8.50 a.m .:

According to the British secret service, Russia’s goal is to take Mariupol by May 9th at the latest.

Meanwhile, the battle for the port city in the east of the country continues abruptly.

Ukraine war: Video is said to show catastrophic conditions in Russian camps

+++ 7.30 a.m .:

New allegations against Russia in the Ukraine war: A video published by the mayor in Mariupol is said to show the conditions in the so-called filtration camps of the Russian army in the east of the country.

This is reported by the Washington Post, which claims to have been able to verify the location of the clips.

The recordings come from a school building in Bezimenne, a village not far from Mariupol.

Battle for Mariupol: 50 people freed from Asvostal Steelworks

+++ 9.30 p.m .:

A total of 50 civilians from the Azov steelworks in Mariupol were brought to safety on Friday.

"Today we were able to get 50 women, children and the elderly out of the Azov Steel Plant," Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk told Telegram.

The Russian Ministry of Defense also spoke of 50 people who had left the contested area.

The action should continue on Saturday morning.

War in Ukraine: Situation around Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol remains critical

+++ 18.30:

Relatives of soldiers trapped in the Azov steelworks have appealed to the international community to save their men.

At a press conference in Kyiv, seven women asked not only civilians to be allowed to flee.

Soldiers should also be given the opportunity to leave the steelworks in a safe place.

The women, some in tears, begged to take the trapped men to a third country.

Ukraine War: Russia suffers casualties in Battle of Mariupol

+++ 10.10 a.m .:

According to British intelligence experts, the Russian troops in Ukraine suffered heavy losses in their storming of the Azowstal plant in the badly damaged port city of Mariupol.

Russia wants to capture the steelworks, the last bastion of the defenders of Mariupol, probably for the victory celebrations on May 9, the British Ministry of Defense said in a statement on Friday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin wishes a symbolic victory in Ukraine on the anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany.

But Russia had to pay for this with high losses of soldiers, material and ammunition.

Meanwhile, it was hoped on Friday that civilians would be evacuated from the steelworks again.

According to Ukrainian sources, around 200 civilians are still waiting there for a chance to get to safety.

In two previous evacuations, mediated by the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross, about 500 people from Mariupol and the surrounding area were taken to Zaporizhia in Ukrainian-controlled territory.

Ukraine War: Ukrainian forces launch counteroffensive

Update from Friday, May 6th, 6:30

a.m.: According to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Russian army has used missiles against various targets in its war against Ukraine in 2014.

Selenskyj announced this in his daily video speech on Friday night.

In addition, since the start of the Russian army's invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2,682 airstrikes have already been registered.

"Each of these operations means the death of our people, the destruction of our infrastructure."

Ukraine war: Russia changes strategy

+++ 3.45 p.m .:

Russia is apparently changing its military strategy in the Donbass.

Meanwhile, video footage released by US broadcaster CNN shows the extent of the destruction in Ukraine.

Ukraine war: Zelenskyy appeals to UNO over steel plant in Mariupol

Update from Thursday, May 5, 6:45 a.m .:

With a Russian ceasefire in sight, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj has called on the UN to save the lives of the injured stuck in the Azov steel plant in Mariupol and to help with their evacuation.

“The lives of the people who are still there are in danger.

Everyone is important to us," Zelenskyi said in a phone conversation with UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Wednesday.

First report from Tuesday, May 3, 9:15 a.m .:

In the international airspace off the island of Rügen there is a scandal: German Air Force Eurofighters are pushing a Russian military aircraft away.

(jf/tu/lm with dpa/AFP)