Mariupol situation – Russian President Vladimir Putin declared the “liberation” of the port city but ongoing resistance is still alive. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says that the soldiers that are surrounded by the steel factory are still ready to fight.
The revelation of satellite photographs gathered and analyzed by Maxar Technologies reinforced Ukrainian officials’ claims concerning the location of apparent mass graves outside Mariupol. Journalists in the area have reported the hurried burial of residents, and photographs have appeared on social media showing bodies seemingly left in the city awaiting pickup.
According to the CEO of the firm that owns the factory, the situation at the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, a large complex that formerly employed more than 10,000 people, is “near to a catastrophe.” According to Yuriy Ryzhenkov, supplies were initially sufficient for two to three weeks, but the embargo had been in place for about eight weeks. Those who remained “weren’t giving up,” he continued. Russian attacks are said to have pinned down hundreds of soldiers as well as civilians seeking sanctuary.
President Zelensky stated that “thousands” of residents are still stuck in the city due to air and ground bombardment, with little chance of safely evacuating. According to the Donetsk regional military administration, 79 residents were successfully evacuated to Zaporizhzhia on Thursday. However, bombardment near the extraction point prevented others from being evacuated, and there was no way to remove residents from the Azovstal plant, according to Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk. Due to “risk on the roadways,” Vereshchuk stated Friday that no evacuation corridors had been agreed upon with the Russian side.
Both Ukraine and Russia claim that they have control over the besieged city of Mariupol. None are independently verified at the moment/