Today, Saturday, the conflict in Ukraine is entering its second month, while it seems that calls for a truce on the occasion of the Easter holiday in the Orthodox regions will not fall on deaf ears, especially in Mariupol, due to the ongoing dialogue of deafness between Kyiv and Moscow. The Russian army continues its military operations by targeting Ukrainian military sites, especially in the Donbass and Kharkov From the West, Ukraine received more arms shipments in the last days.
The Ukrainian president’s adviser announced that “Russian forces have resumed air raids on the Azovstal factory” in the city of Mariupol, where Ukrainian forces are holed up inside the factory, adding that “Russian forces are trying to launch incursions into the Azovstal factory.” He pointed out that “Ukrainian forces repelled 8 Russian attacks in the east of the country.”
In another development, the delegate of “Al-Arabiya” and “Al-Hadath” to Kharkiv reported that “huge explosions and shooting sounded in the city.”
Earlier on Saturday, the Ukrainian governor of Luhansk indicated that Russian forces had intensively bombed all areas of the city, noting that the Ukrainian forces were repositioning themselves in the city and had not withdrawn, while the Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine announced the opening of a humanitarian corridor today from Mariupol.
For its part, the Russian Defense Ministry announced the destruction of 3 Ukrainian missile depots in the Chervonoy region, and the destruction of 66 military targets in Ukraine yesterday, in addition to the downing of a Ukrainian SU-25 fighter jet in the Kharkiv region.
And the British Ministry of Defense confirmed that the Russian air and naval forces did not extend their control over any area, as the Ukrainian counter-attacks impeded the progress of the Russian forces, noting that the Russian forces did not achieve significant gains in the past 24 hours, despite the increase in their operations.
She added that Ukraine’s air and sea defense reduces the capacity of Russian forces, noting that the fierce fighting frustrates Moscow’s attempts to seize the port city of Mariupol, which impedes its progress in the Donbass region.
Reporter #Arabia In Donetsk, Raed Al-Agbar recounts a summary of his tour near Azovstal: the Chechens rule the siege of the Ukrainian forces inside the factory pic.twitter.com/soJoxYdXlX
– Arabic (@AlArabiya) April 23, 2022
On the ground, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that life has begun to return to normal in the country Mariupol cityAnd that the residents could move freely in the city.
“The situation in Mariupol has been normalized, and residents can move freely on the streets without hiding from the bombing of the Ukrainian Nazis,” a spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry said.
He added that humanitarian aid is being transported to Mariupol, including food, water and basic supplies, and that the authorities of the Donetsk People’s Republic are cleaning the streets of destroyed Ukrainian military equipment.
For her part, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova confirmed that there is evidence of people in “Azovestal” who are not connected to the Ukrainian forces, stressing that “the road from the region is open to everyone who wants to leave.”
From the vicinity of the Azovstal facility in Mariupol
Azovstal industrial zone in Mariupol
Azovstal facility in Mariupol
This comes as the Russian Defense Ministry announced that the Russian army had seized a huge arsenal weighing thousands of tons of Soviet and Western munitions and weapons left by Ukrainian forces before their withdrawal from the Kharkov regions.
“Ukrainian forces left behind a large arsenal of artillery shells, missiles and man-portable air defense weapons, as well as cluster munitions. The stores are located on a large area and in aircraft hangars, and they weigh thousands of tons,” the ministry said in a press statement.
Moscow had announced that it was seeking to control southern Ukraine and the entire Donbass region, two months after the start of the operation of the Russian army, which the United Nations accused, on Friday, of committing acts that “may amount to war crimes.”
A senior Russian military official said Friday that “one of the objectives of the Russian army is to extend complete control over Donbass and southern Ukraine,” referring to the “second phase of the special operation” aimed, among other things, “to ensure a land corridor towards the Crimea.” .
Ukraine got from the West Larger shipments of weapons in recent daysand continues to stress its ability to expel Russian forces from its territory.
“They can only delay the inevitable – the moment when the Russians will have to withdraw from our territory, especially Mariupol,” Zelensky said Thursday evening.
Kyiv confirmed that the strategic port city of Mariupol, which Moscow says it “liberated”, is still resisting Russian forces, noting that thousands of Ukrainian fighters continue to fight fiercely to defend the huge “Azovestal” metallurgical complex in which civilians are also holed up.
The regional governor of Ukraine’s Donetsk region, Pavlo Kirilenko, told AFP on Friday The future of the war in Ukraine ‘depends on the fate of Mariupol’considering that this city is of “strategic” importance for the Ukrainians in their defense of the region, and for the Russians in their quest to find a land link with Crimea.