Ukrainian officials accused Russian troops of bombing and shelling a factory that is being used as a shelter for civilians in the besieged city of Mariupol.
At least 1,000 civilians, including women and children, are sheltering underneath the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol alongside the city’s remaining defense forces that are refusing to surrender to Russian troops. The Mariupol City Council said on Monday that the civilians are trapped there.
Petro Andriushchenko, an adviser to the mayor of Mariupol, claimed on Tuesday that Russian forces “are not only striking Azovstal with bombs but also with artillery and tanks, continuing their chaotic attacks on the residential area of the Left Bank (Livoberezhnyi) district along the line from the Meotidy Boulevard.”
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Mariupol is a strategically important port city in the southern part of the country. It is located between the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, and the Donbas region, which is in the east and is heavily populated with pro-Russian separatists.
While the city remains contested, the Pentagon said as recently as Monday that the Russian forces have sought to beat the city into submission. Ukrainian officials estimate that more than 90% of the city’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, while the death toll, according to some, exceeds 20,000.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said the port city of Mariupol “doesn’t exist anymore” because of the destruction of the city by Russian forces and the alleged killings of civilians that have resulted in accusations of war crimes.
This is not the first time Russian forces have been accused of targeting civilian shelters and structures in Mariupol. They shelled a maternity hospital in the city, they bombed a Mariupol theater that was serving as a shelter, even though locals had spelled out the word “children” in Russian in the front and back of the facility to prevent such an attack, and they bombed a school that was housing hundreds of people in the city.
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Russian forces, which have since given up on capturing the capital of Kyiv, have recently focused their attention on the Donbas region and have sought to reinforce their troops in the area. Their reinforcements come in the way of 11 new battalion tactical groups, which brings the total number in the area to 76, a senior U.S. defense official told reporters on Monday, and each one consists of roughly 800-1,000 service members.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday that the “battle for the Donbas” is underway.
