MARIUPOL STEEL MILL
Exhaustion, dwindling reserves and a commander who disappeared: How Ukraine lost Avdiivka to Russia
Within a week, Ukraine had lost Avdiivka, the city in the Donetsk region that it had been defending since long before Russia's full-scale invasion. Nearly surrounded and vastly outnumbered, the Ukrainians made the decision to withdraw and avoid the same kind of deadly siege soldiers experienced in the port city of Mariupol's Azovstal steel mill, where thousands were taken captive or killed.
Russian President Vladimir Putin visits occupied city of Mariupol
Putin traveled to Crimea, a short distance southwest of Mariupol, to mark the ninth anniversary of the Black Sea peninsula's annexation from Ukraine. Mariupol became a worldwide symbol of defiance after outgunned and outmanned Ukrainian forces held out in a steel mill there for nearly three months before Moscow finally took control of it in May.
Russia steps up effort to take elusive prize of Ukraine city
More broadly, Russia continues to experience difficulty generating battlefield momentum. Moscow's full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022 soon stalled and then was pushed back by a Ukraine counteroffensive. Over the bitterly cold winter months, the fighting has largely been deadlocked.
The Ukraine war, from Azovstal to 'Z'
The fighters inside Azovstal withstood attacks by the Russian army for weeks, when the rest of the city had fallen after a devastating siege. The troops, including fighters from the Azov regiment that Moscow describes as a neo-Nazi organisation, took shelter in a warren of tunnels beneath the plant.
Russia, Ukraine trade blame for shelling of POW prison in separatist region
Russia said that Ukraine used U.S.-supplied HIMARS multiple rocket launchers in the attack on the prison in Olenivka, in the Russian-controlled Donetsk region. Officials from Russia and the separatist authorities in Donetsk said the attack killed 53 Ukrainian POWs and wounded 75. The Ukrainian military denied any rocket or artillery strikes on Olenivka.
Russia's claim of Mariupol's capture fuels concern for POWs
Poland, which has welcomed millions of Ukrainian refugees since the start of the war, is a strong supporter of Ukraine's desire to join the European Union. With Russia blocking Ukraine's sea ports, Poland has become a major gateway for Western humanitarian aid and weapons going into Ukraine and has been helping Ukraine get its grain and other agricultural products to world markets.
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Russia-Ukraine crisis: Who were Mariupol's last defenders?
Earlier in the week, Ukrainian officials said its combatants in the Azovstal steel plant had completed their mission and were being evacuated, describing them as heroes who had fulfilled a gruelling task.
In biggest victory yet, Russia claims to have captured Mariupol
Russian authorities have threatened to investigate some of the steel mill's defenders for war crimes and put them on trial, branding them “Nazis” and criminals. That has stirred international fears about their fate. The steelworks, which sprawled across 11 square kilometers (4 square miles), had been the site of fierce fighting for weeks. The dwindling group of outgunned fighters had held out, drawing Russian airstrikes, artillery and tank fire, before their government ordered them to abandon the plant's defense and save themselves.
Britain: Russian troops likely to redeploy from Mariupol
More than 1,700 defenders of the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol have surrendered since Monday, Russian authorities said, in what appeared to be the final stage in the nearly three-month siege of the now-pulverized port city.
Ukraine: Troops who defended Mariupol steel mill registered as POWs
Amnesty International said in a tweet that the POW status means that the soldiers "must not be subjected to any form of torture or ill-treatment."
Mariupol battle draws to close; fighting in Donbas continues
In the eastern Donbas region, which has been the center of recent fighting as Russian forces on the offensive have clashed with staunch Ukrainian resistance, four civilians were killed in the town of Sievierodonetsk in a Russian bombardment, Luhansk Gov. Serhiy Haidai said.
Ukraine mounts effort to rescue last fighters at steel mill
Ukraine's deputy defense minister said more than 260 fighters, including some badly wounded, were evacuated from the hulking Azovstal plant Monday and taken to areas under Russia's control.
Ukraine: More than 260 fighters evacuated from Mariupol mill
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the evacuation to separatist-controlled territory was done to save the lives of the fighters who endured weeks of Russian assaults in the maze of underground passages below the hulking Azovstal steelworks. He said the "heavily wounded" were getting medical help.
Ukrainians make gains in east, hold on at Mariupol mill
Russian forces have made advances in the Donbas and control more of it than they did before the war began. But Kuleba's statement - which seemed to reflect political ambitions more than battlefield realities - highlighted how Ukraine has stymied a larger, better-armed Russian military, surprising many who had anticipated a much quicker end to the conflict.
Civilians leave steelworks as Ukraine braces for renewed offensive
The Russian campaign has run into tough resistance -- and galvanised Kyiv's western allies to comprehensively sanction the Russian economy and Putin's inner circle. But with Victory Day approaching, Ukrainian officials fear more intense missile and artillery bombardments and renewed assaults, as Moscow scrambles for symbolic wins.
Ukraine braces for attacks, evacuates more from steel mill
In a sign of the unexpectedly effective defense that has sustained the fighting into its 11th week, Ukraine's military flattened Russian positions on a Black Sea island that was captured in the war's first days and has become a symbol of Ukrainian resistance.
Mariupol steel mill battle rages as Ukraine repels attacks
Ten weeks into a devastating war, Ukraine's military claimed Thursday it recaptured some areas in the south and repelled other attacks in the east, further frustrating Putin's ambitions.
Russia pounds Ukraine, targeting supply of Western arms
The flurry of attacks over the past day comes as Russia prepares to celebrate Victory Day on May 9. Will Vladimir Putin use the occasion to declare a limited victory ?
Russia pounds Ukraine, targeting supply of Western arms
The Russian military said Wednesday it used sea- and air-launched precision guided missiles to destroy electric power facilities at five railway stations across Ukraine, while artillery and aircraft also struck troop strongholds and fuel and ammunition depots.
Russia storms Mariupol plant as some evacuees reach safety
How many Ukrainian fighters were holed up inside was unclear, but the Russians put the number at about 2,000 in recent weeks, and 500 were reported to be wounded. A few hundred civilians also remained there, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said.
Russia plans to annex parts of eastern Ukraine: US official
Michael Carpenter, U.S. ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, said Monday that the U.S. believes the Kremlin also plans to recognize the southern city of Kherson as an independent republic. Neither move would be recognized by the United States or its allies, he said.
Russia cuts off 2 EU nations from its gas in war escalation
Russia opened a new front in its war in Ukraine on Wednesday, cutting two European Union nations that staunchly back Kyiv off from its gas, a dramatic escalation in the conflict that is increasingly becoming a wider battle with the West.
Russia shifts forces for battle over Ukrainian heartland
In Mariupol, reduced largely to smoking rubble by weeks of bombardment, Russian state TV showed the flag of the pro-Moscow Donetsk separatists raised on what it said was the city's highest point, its TV tower. It also showed what it said was the main building at the city's besieged Azovstal steel plant in flames.
Missiles cause multiple explosions in western Ukrainian city Lviv
Braced for an all-out Russian assault in the east, Ukraine vowed to "fight absolutely to the end" in strategically vital Mariupol, where the ruined port city's last known pocket of resistance was holed up in a sprawling steel plant laced with tunnels. With missiles and rockets also battering other parts of the country, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russian soldiers of carrying out torture and kidnappings in areas they control.
'No surrender': Ukrainians fight on in Mariupol steel plant
The fall of Mariupol, which has been reduced to rubble in a seven-week siege, would give Moscow its biggest victory of the war. But a few thousand fighters, by Russia's estimate, hold on to the giant, 11-square-kilometer (4-square-mile) Azovstal steel mill.
Ukraine defiant as key port Mariupol teeters on brink
The Russian military estimated that about 2,500 Ukrainian fighters holding out at a hulking steel plant with a warren of underground passageways provided the last pocket of resistance in Mariupol. Russia gave another deadline for their surrender, saying those who put down their weapons were “guaranteed to keep their lives”, but Ukraine remained defiant.
Russia renews strikes on Ukraine capital, hits other cities
Stung by the loss of its Black Sea flagship and indignant over alleged Ukrainian aggression on Russian territory, Russia's military command had warned of renewed missile strikes on Ukraine's capital.
Putin vows to press invasion until Russia's goals are met
Russia invaded on Feb. 24, with the goal, according to Western officials, of taking Kyiv, the capital, toppling the government and installing a Moscow-friendly regime. In the six weeks since, the ground advance stalled and Russian forces lost potentially thousands of fighters and were accused of killing civilians and other atrocities.
Ukraine probes claim poisonous substance dropped in Mariupol
Thwarted in his apparent ambition to overrun the Ukrainian capital, Russian President Vladimir Putin is now building up forces for a new offensive in the eastern Donbas region, and insisted on Tuesday that his campaign would achieve its goals.
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