47th day of war in Ukraine: Separatists claim control of Mariupol . port

“We have complete control of the seaport of the city of Mariupol,” the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) leader Denis Pushilin said on April 11.

The Russian military earlier said fighting in the southern city Mariupol are gathering at the Azovstal steel mill, where about 1,500-3,000 nationalist fighters are entrenched.

Mariupol is a strategic city on the Azov coast, the corridor on the junction connecting the Crimean peninsula with the breakaway region in eastern Ukraine. If this location is controlled, Russia will be able to connect the strategic corridor and completely block the gateway to the Sea of ​​Azov of Ukraine.

The city has been besieged by Russian forces since early March. According to Ukrainian officials, about 90% of residential buildings in the city were damaged or destroyed, power supplies and communications cut off.

“Today will probably be the last battle, ammunition is running low. Some people will die, the rest will become prisoners. We were repelled and surrounded by Russian forces. The unit was defended for 47 days and did everything possible to control the city,” posted a post on the Facebook account of the 36th Ukrainian Army Marine Brigade, the defense unit in Mariupol.

This account also criticized the Ukrainian military leadership, saying that “no one wants to contact because the unit is about to be completely annihilated”.

“The number of wounded accounted for half of the brigade. Those who did not lose limbs continued to fight. All infantry soldiers were killed, the fighting force is now only artillerymen and gunners. air defense, radio soldiers, drivers, chefs and even the military orchestra”, the article reads.

The commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army, Valeriy Zaluzhny, later posted a notice on Facebook, asserting that the line of communication with the Mariupol defense forces “remains maintained and stable”. “The Ukrainian army is doing everything to win and protect the lives of soldiers and civilians on all fronts,” he said.

Petro Andryushchenko, an adviser to the mayor of Mariupol, believes that the Facebook page of the 36th Brigade has been hacked and the post is fake.

The Russian Defense Ministry has not commented on this information.

The Russian military also announced that special operations forces “destroyed Taras Bobanich, one of the leaders of the far-right Right Sector group during a reconnaissance and patrol operation near the eastern city.” Izyum“Moscow accused Bobanich of ordering the shelling of apartment buildings in Donetsk and Lugansk in 2014, causing hundreds of civilian casualties.

British intelligence said that the Russian army is increasing artillery shelling in the province Donetsk and Lugansk in eastern Ukraine, while Ukrainian forces repelled many attacks in this area and destroyed a number of Russian armored tanks and artillery.

The Russian Defense Ministry confirmed that the Russian warship on April 10 launched a Kalibr guided missile at an S-300 air defense missile division in the suburbs. Dnipro, central Ukraine. The destroyed targets were four S-300 missile launchers “supplied to Ukraine by a European country”, but the Russian military did not name the country.

Ukraine has not commented on the report, while Slovak government spokeswoman Lubica Janikova insisted “our S-300 missile was not destroyed”, referring to the air defense complex delivered to Ukraine last week. .

More than 4.5 million Ukrainians have been evacuated from the country since conflict with Russia broke out, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. 90% of those who leave Ukraine are women and children, because Ukrainian authorities do not allow men of military age to evacuate.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said 1,793 civilians have died and 2,439 injured since the outbreak of hostilities, but warned the actual number could be higher.

Vu Anh (According to Interfax, Reuters)