(CNN) — Russia’s war in Ukraine does not stop, more than two months after Vladimir Putin ordered what Moscow calls a “special military operation.” At this time, the main attention is focused on the Azovstal steel plant, in the coastal city of Mariupol, which already appears to be under the control of Russian forces. A Ukrainian official assured that the intense attacks continued throughout the early hours of this Thursday in that place.
“From now on, if there is a hell in the world, it is in Azovstal,” said Petro Andriushchenko, adviser to the mayor of Mariupol, on Thursday morning.
“There is uninterrupted shelling and assault, even at night with the drone fire setting. In some areas, hostilities are already over the fence of the plant,” he said.
Andriushchenko added that residential areas near the plant “had to urgently evacuate on their own without prior notice.”
“The last 11 square kilometers (four square miles) of freedom in Mariupol have turned into hell,” he said.
Fighters inside the plant said Wednesday that Russian forces had breached their perimeter.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian military said Russian soldiers are concentrating on killing Ukrainian units at the Azovstal steel plant.
“The Russian occupiers are focusing their efforts on blocking and trying to destroy our units in the Azovstal area. The enemy resumed the offensive with the support of aviation to take control of the plant,” the army said in its latest update.
Russian attack on Azovstal was ‘repelled’, says Ukrainian presidential adviser
Oleksiy Arestovych, Presidential Adviser of Ukraine, spoke about the latest situation at the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol.
He told Ukrainian television: “We can say that yesterday the Russian troops entered the Azovstal territory and were repelled by our defenders.”
The adviser added that a lot of conflicting information was circulating, but added: “We can say there is fighting going on. The rest of the information is becoming clear.”
“Negotiations with Russia are ongoing [sobre nuevos corredores humanitarios]and all diplomatic authorities are involved,” he said.
There are no signs that any civilians were able to leave the ruins of the steel complex on Thursday. CNN’s efforts to contact managers inside the Azovstal plant have been unsuccessful.
“There is no success” for Russia in its attempt to break through the front lines, says the Ukrainian army
The Ukrainian armed forces say the Russians have had “no success” in their efforts to break through the front lines in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions over the past 24 hours.
In its operational update on Thursday, the General Staff said: “Luhansk, Severodonetsk and Popasna areas. Enemy units try to carry out offensive operations; without success.”
repulsed attacks: The three cities are on the front lines of a multi-pronged Russian offensive to take the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. The General Staff said a total of 11 attacks had been repulsed.
Some Russian soldiers have refused to take part in further hostilities, according to the General Staff.
An aerial view shows a destroyed apartment building on May 4, 2022 in Borodianka, Ukraine. (Photo by Alexey Furman/Getty Images)
“A number of servicemen from the 38th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade of the 35th Army of the Eastern Military District, after being taken to the recovery zone, refused to continue participating in hostilities in Ukraine due to significant losses of personnel “, said.
CNN has not been able to verify this claim and the General Staff has not provided further details.
Wounded by missile attacks: Russian actions appear to have been largely missile and artillery fire in the last 24 hours. Local authorities in Kramatorsk, a city in the Donetsk region, said six people had been injured and needed hospital treatment in a missile attack overnight.
At least three buildings, a school and a nursery were seriously damaged.
on the south front: The Zaporizhia regional military administration said that “the military situation has not changed significantly. The fighting is taking place around Huliaipole and along the entire line of contact. The Russians have up to 13 battalion tactical groups in the area.”
Huliaipole has suffered from shelling for at least two weeks, as has Polohy, where a woman died of shrapnel wounds, according to authorities.
Further south: The Ukrainians claim to have recaptured settlements on the border of the Mykolayiv and Kherson regions.
Zelensky spoke with the Prime Minister of Israel about the “scandalous” comments of the Russian Foreign Minister
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has spoken with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett about Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s “outrageous” statement that Hitler had Jewish blood.
In his late-night speech on Wednesday, Zelensky said he spoke with Bennett to congratulate him on Israel’s Independence Day and to update him on the situation in the southern city of Mariupol and in eastern Ukraine.
“We also talked about the scandalous and absolutely inadmissible statements of the Russian Foreign Minister, who insulted the whole world,” the Ukrainian president said.
In an interview on Italian television on Sunday, Lavrov repeated Russia’s claim that its invasion of Ukraine is part of efforts to “de-Nazify” the country.
He dismissed the fact that Zelensky is Jewish, saying: “He [Zelensky] raises an argument: what kind of Nazism can they have if he is Jewish. I may be wrong, but Hitler also had Jewish blood. That means absolutely nothing. Jewish scholars say that the most ardent anti-Semites are often Jews.”
The Russian foreign minister’s remarks unleashed the fury of the Israeli government, which promptly summoned the Russian ambassador to Israel.