Today, Friday, Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine entered its 86th day, as Russian forces continue to target Ukrainian military infrastructure sites and liberate the Donbass lands, while The West continues to support Kyiv with funds and military equipment. Moscow seeks, in particular, to control the entire Russian-speaking Donbass region, part of which has been controlled by separatists loyal to it since 2014.
In the latest developments, Ukrainian military commander Denis Prokopenko announced, Friday, in a video message, that the last Ukrainian soldiers holed up in the Azovstal steel plant in the city of Mariupol, received an order from Kyiv to “stop defending the city.” “The military high command gave the order to save the lives of the soldiers, and to stop defending the city,” said Prokopenko, a commander of the Azov battalion, one of the Ukrainian units at the plant.
Before that, the Ukrainian General Staff said that Russian forces intensified their offensive in the eastern Donbass region, using artillery, missile launchers and aircraft to destroy defenses around Donetsk.
For its part, the British Ministry of Defense said that the pressure to achieve the goals puts the Russian army at risk of further losses, stressing that the resistance in Mariupol is hindering the effective redeployment of Russian forces. She added that elements of the Ukrainian forces are now present in the Azovstal factory, while 1,700 Ukrainian soldiers who were in the Azovstal factory have surrendered so far.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Friday that Russian forces tighten pressure in the Donbass region Which turned it into a “hell”, while the Ukrainian media quoted him as saying that he expected the final stage of the war to be “the bloodiest”.
This comes as the Chiefs of the Russian General Staff Valery Gerasimov and the American Mark Milley discussed the developments in Ukraine, for the first time since Russia began its military operation in this country, according to Russian media.
The Russian Defense Ministry confirmed in a statement that the call between Gerasimov and Mili took place Thursday at the initiative of the United States, during which “issues of mutual interest, including the situation in Ukraine” were discussed, without explaining further details.
In turn, the spokesman for the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Dave Butler, announced that the call dealt with “several issues of concern on the security front,” noting that the two sides “agreed to keep the channels of communication open,” without explaining further details.
In the field, Russian bombing caused 12 deaths and 40 wounded Thursday in Severodonetsk in the Lugansk region (east), according to local governor Sergey Gaidai, who said that most of the bombing hit residential buildings and that the toll could rise.
Severodonetsk and Lysichansk, separated by a river, constitute the last enclave of Ukrainian resistance in the Lugansk region. Russian soldiers are besieging these two areas, which are subject to continuous bombardment.
Five civilians were also killed in the Donetsk region, in the Donbass, according to Governor Pavlo Kirilenko.
Russia announced Thursday that about 800 Ukrainian soldiers who were holed up in the Azovstal steel complex in Mariupol had surrendered during the previous 24 hours, bringing the total number of those who surrendered to 1,730 since Monday.
On the other hand, the war threatens to escalate the global food crisis as it raises a serious disturbance in the agricultural activity and the movement of grain exports in Ukraine, which until now was the fourth exporter of corn in the world and is about to become the third exporter of wheat.