A commander of the Azov regiment which is defending the Azovstal steel plant said “heavy bloody fighting continues” as he accused Russia of violating its promise of a ceasefire.
The Russian military had announced a three-day ceasefire starting on Thursday at the Azovstal steelworks. But Svyatoslav Palamar, a commander of the Azov regiment defending it, said that has not happened.
“The Russians violated the promise of a truce and did not allow the evacuation of civilians who continue to hide from shelling in the basement of the plant,” Palamar said.
A new UN convoy is expected in Mariupol on Friday to try to evacuate civilians from the factory.
“Today as we speak, a convoy is proceeding to get to Azovstal by tomorrow morning hopefully to receive those civilians remaining in that bleak hell … and take them back to safety,” UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths tells a Ukraine donors’ conference in Warsaw on Thursday.
President Vladimir Putin says the Russian army is “still ready” to give safe passage to civilians trapped at Azovstal.
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04:57 AM
Pentagon denies helping Ukraine ‘target’ Russian generals
The US Defense Department denied that it provided intelligence on the locations of Russian generals on the battlefield so that Ukrainian forces could kill them.
Reacting to an explosive New York Times report on US support for Ukraine’s military, Pentagon Spokesman John Kirby said it was true that the United States supplies Kyiv’s forces with military intelligence “to help Ukrainians defend their country.”
“We do not provide intelligence on the location of senior military leaders on the battlefield or participate in the targeting decisions of the Ukrainian military,” Mr Kirby said.
