Russia announces final offensive to take Mariupol, the strategic Ukrainian city devastated by war

The Army of Russia today announced the final offensive to take the port city of Mariupol (Sea of ​​Azov) after the deadline for the Ukrainian forces to lay down their arms and leave the city for the territory controlled by kyiv.

“We have repeatedly informed kyiv through all available channels of the proposals on the possibility of withdrawing from Mariupol of units of the Ukrainian Armed Forces to lay down their arms”, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman General Igor Konashenkov reported in his evening report.

According to the Russian general, from 6 a.m. local time today The proposal to the Ukrainian military to hand over their weapons and leave by a safe route to the territories controlled by the Ukrainian authorities was reiterated, which was ignored.

“Taking into consideration kyiv’s lack of interest in preserving the lives of its military, Mariupol will be liberated from the nationalist units by the Armed Forces of Russia and the Donetsk People’s Republic”he alerted.

He specified that this morning the Russian Army frustrated a new attempt to evacuate the command of the nationalist battalion Azov with the shooting down of two Mi-8 helicopters that were trying to reach the city from the sea.

Konashénkov reported that the forces of the “Lugansk People’s Republic” continued their advance against the positions of the 24th Motorized Brigade of the Ukrainian Army, which fought him on the outskirts of the town of Novotoskóvskoye.

In addition, he pointed out that these forces managed to break the defense lines of the Ukrainian 57th Motorized Infantry Brigade, which lost up to 50 troops and 9 armored vehicles on the northern limits of the town of Zamulovka.

Mariupola city in which some 100,000 people still remain, according to various estimates, has been under siege by Russian troops and separatist militias for several weeks.

According to the City Council, in the siege of the city, condemned for its brutality by the international community, some five thousand people may have died.

Last week the Russian Army withdrew from the kyiv region and regrouped its forces to focus all its efforts on the conquest of Donbas, the original objective of the so-called “special military operation” launched by Moscow on February 24, which was confirmed today by NATO.

Source: Elcomercio

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