Russia is trying to "eliminate everything alive" in the Donbass - consultant believes Mariupol goal has been achieved

Created: 05/24/2022, 08:05

By: Cindy Boden

Russia is apparently trying to take key positions in eastern Ukraine with bombing.

A consultant sees a Mariupol target as achieved.

News ticker.

• Escalated conflict in Ukraine

  : Russia tries to take key positions in Donbass.

• Case of the port city of Mariupol

  : adviser to the Ukrainian defense minister nevertheless considers the main military objective to have been achieved.

• This

  news ticker on military events in the Ukraine war

  is continuously updated.

According to the Ukrainian government, the Russian armed forces are trying to seize key positions in eastern Ukraine with heavy bombardments.

The situation in the Donbass is even "extremely difficult" because the Russians are trying to "eliminate everything alive," said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday night (May 24).

Russia is trying to encircle the cities of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk.

The Ministry of Defense reported fierce fighting around Bakhmut.

Ukraine war: 'We've reached a point where we're about to make evacuations mandatory'

Destroyed trams stand in a depot in Mariupol, an area under the government of the Donetsk People's Republic in eastern Ukraine, May 21.

© Alexei Alexandrov/dpa

The fall of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region would give Russian troops control of a crucial hub that currently serves as the command center for much of Ukraine's war effort in the east.

"We have reached a point where we are in the process of making evacuations mandatory," said the head of Bakhmut's military administration, Serhiy Kalian.

The governor of Luhansk, Serhiy Gajday, on the other hand, reported that the shelling in Severodonetsk was so heavy that evacuations were impossible.

"Such a density of shelling will not allow us to calmly gather people and take them," he explained on Telegram.

You can read reactions from Germany to the Ukraine war in this news ticker.

War in Ukraine: Ukrainian defense adviser sees main objective in Mariupol achieved

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Another focal point so far in the Ukraine war: Mariupol.

Despite the fall of the port city, an adviser to the Ukrainian defense minister sees the main military objective there as having been achieved.

“The main goal was achieved in Mariupol.

It was to hold back the Russian groups (...) more than 20,000 Russian soldiers.

And that was made possible thanks to the heroic deeds of the Mariupol defenders and the defenders who were later in Azovstal," said Yuriy Sak on Tuesday in the ARD "Morgenmagazin".

As a result, the Russian troops would not have been able to conquer other areas in eastern Ukraine.

Azovstal's soldiers would have given Ukrainians time to regroup and receive more military aid from their international partners.

"From this perspective, the goal was achieved," says Sak.

The last Ukrainian fighters at the Azov steelworks in Mariupol surrendered last week.

A journalist loyal to the Kremlin is said to have announced the location of a mortar on TV.

Shortly thereafter, the gun was destroyed, according to Ukraine.