WRAPUP 6-Ukrainian officials say Russian firing hampers rescue of Mariupol civilians

Ukrainian officials accused Russia of violating a ceasefire on Friday aimed at evacuating scores of civilians trapped in a bombed-out steelworks in the city of Mariupol, after fighting thwarted efforts to rescue them the previous day. Mariupol, a strategic southern port on the Azov Sea, has endured the most destructive siege of the 10-week-old war, and the sprawling Soviet-era Azovstal plant is the last part of the city still in the hands of Ukrainian fighters.

Ukrainian officials accused Russia of violating a ceasefire on Friday aimed at evacuating scores of civilians trapped in a bombed-out steelworks in the city of Mariupol, after fighting thwarted efforts to rescue them the previous day.

Mariupol, a strategic southern port on the Azov Sea, has endured the most destructive siege of the 10-week-old war, and the sprawling Soviet-era Azovstal plant is the last part of the city still in the hands of Ukrainian fighters. U.N.-brokered evacuations of some of the hundreds of civilians who had taken shelter in the plant's network of tunnels and bunkers began last weekend, but were halted in recent days by renewed fighting.

The head of Ukraine's presidential staff, Andriy Yermak, said the next stage of the rescue was under way on Friday, but Mariupol authorities said Russian forces had fired at a car that was involved, killing one Ukrainian fighter and wounding six. Russia had no immediate comment.

Andriy Biletsky, a founder of the Azov Regiment holed up in the steelworks, said it was under attack and called for help. "The fighting is continuing, the shelling does not stop," he wrote in an online post, pleading for a petition to increase pressure on the United Nations and global leaders to help evacuate fighters and civilians.

"Every minute of procrastination is the life of civilians, soldiers and the wounded," he wrote. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy described the blockade of Mariupol as torture and said if Russia killed civilians or troops who could otherwise be released, his government could no longer hold peace talks with Moscow.

GLOBAL HUNGER The port, which lies between the Crimea Peninsula seized by Moscow in 2014 and parts of eastern Ukraine taken by Russia-backed separatists the same year, is key to linking up the two Russian-held territories and blocking Ukrainian grain exports.

A senior U.N. official said nearly 25 million tonnes of grain, needed to prevent prices spiralling and causing hunger around the world, were stuck in Ukraine. "It's an almost grotesque situation," Josef Schmidhuber, Deputy Director of the Food and Agriculture Organization's Markets and Trade Division said in Geneva.

Ukraine's general staff said Russian forces were continuing to try to take over the rest of eastern Ukraine, where Russia's defence ministry said it had destroyed a large ammunition depot in Kramatorsk and had shot down two Ukrainian warplanes. Ukraine said it had captured 11 Russian snipers in the region around its second city, Kharkiv.

It was not possible to independently verify either side's statements about events on the battlefield. Moscow calls its actions a "special military operation" to disarm Ukraine and rid it of anti-Russian nationalism fomented by the West. Ukraine and the West say Russia launched an unprovoked war of aggression. More than 5 million Ukrainians have fled abroad since the start of the invasion.

'VICTORY DAY IN MARIUPOL' In Mariupol, Ukraine's general staff said on Friday morning Russian efforts to overrun the Azovstal plant had resumed, with air support.

A member of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic forces, who are fighting alongside the Russian army in eastern Ukraine, told Reuters he thought Ukrainian forces had little strength left to defend Azovstal. "It won't last long," said the fighter who gave his name as Alexei, speaking on Thursday as detonations resonated in the background near the plant. He did not provide evidence for his statement.

An estimated 200 civilians remained trapped underground in the plant with little food or water, Mariupol's mayor said. The Kremlin denies Ukrainian allegations that Russian troops stormed the plant in recent days and said humanitarian corridors were in place.

Russian President Valdimir Putin declared victory in Mariupol on April 21 and ordered his forces to seal off the plant while calling for Ukrainian forces inside to disarm. Asked about plans to mark May 9, the day Moscow commemorates the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two, in territory recently seized by Russian-backed forces, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said:

"The time will come to mark Victory Day in Mariupol." STUBBORN DEFENCE

The Ukrainian defence of Azovstal has underlined Russia's failure to take major cities in a war that has united Western powers in arming Kyiv to prevent a Russian takeover. Ukraine and its western allies say Russian forces have made slow progress in their revised aim of capturing the east and south of the country but bombardments have affected more and more civilians.

The Kremlin says it targets only military or strategic sites and not civilians. Ukraine daily reports civilian casualties from Russian shelling and fighting, and accuses Russia of war crimes. Russia denies the allegations. The most severe sanctions ever imposed on a major power have impaired Russia's $1.8 trillion economy and billions of dollars worth of military aid has helped Ukraine frustrate the invasion.

The European Union's proposed new sanctions package, which includes an oil embargo, has run into opposition from some member states, with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban saying it would amount to an "atomic bomb" dropped on the economy. The European Commission has proposed giving Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic more time to adapt to the embargo, three EU sources told Reuters.

 

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)