Russian forces pushed forward in their assault on Ukraine, seeking to capture the crucial southern port city of Mariupol, as Moscow celebrated its Victory Day holiday.
Determined to show success in a war now in its 11th week, Russian troops pummeled a seaside steel mill where an estimated 2,000 Ukrainian fighters areThe mill is the only part of the city not overtaken by the invaders. Its defeat would deprive Ukraine of a vital port and allow Russia to establish a land corridor to the Crimean Peninsula, which it seized from Ukraine in 2014.
Speaking Monday at a military parade marking the holiday, Russian President Vladimir Putin sought to justify his invasion, by claiming that it was necessary to ward off what he described "an absolutely unacceptable threat just next to our borders." He has repeatedly alleged that Ukraine was planning to attack Russia — which Kyiv has flatly denied.
Ukrainian fighters in the steel mill in the port city have rejected Russian-set deadlines for laying down their arms, even as attacks continued by warplanes, artillery and tanks. The last of the civilians who had taken shelter with fighters at the plant were evacuated Saturday. They arrived Sunday night in Zaporizhzhia, the first major Ukrainian city beyond the frontlines, anddwindling food, ubiquitous mold — and using hand sanitizer for cooking fuel.
Russian shelling killed two boys, ages 11 and 14, in the nearby town of Pryvillia, Haidai said. Luhansk is part of the Donbas, the industrial heartland in the east that Russia’s forces are working to capture.Keeping up their dogged resistance, Ukraine’s military struck Russian positions on a Black Sea island that was captured in the war’s first days. A satellite image by Planet Labs showed smoke rising from two sites on the island.
However, the Ukrainian army withdrew from the embattled eastern city of Popasna after two months of fierce fighting. Rodion Miroshnik, a representative of the pro-Kremlin, separatist Luhansk People’s Republic, said its forces and Russian troops had captured most of the city. Russian President Vladimir Putin waves during the Victory Day Parade at Red Square on May 9, 2022, in Moscow, Russia.
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