May 5 (Reuters) – The Kremlin denied that Russian troops were storming the Azovstal steel plant in Ukraine’s southern port city of Mariupol, where Ukrainian fighters and civilians are trapped, and said humanitarian corridors were operating there on Thursday.
Asked if a claim by a senior Ukrainian official that Russian troops had broken into the plant’s territory was true, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov referred reporters to President Vladimir Putin’s previous order not to storm the plant.
Putin called off plans for an assault on the plant last month, telling his defence minister to seal it off instead.
Ukrainian forces inside Mariupol’s Azovstal metal works have been fighting “difficult bloody battles” against Russian troops, the commander of the controversial Azov regiment has said.
In a video message posted on Telegram on Wednesday, commander Denis Prokopenko praised his soldiers’ “superhuman efforts” to repel the Russian assault – adding that the situation was “extremely difficult.”
His message came after a Ukrainian official said Russian forces had entered the territory of the plant – the final stronghold of Ukrainian forces in the shattered city of Mariupol.
President Zelensky has said efforts will continue to evacuate civilians from the vast industrial plant.
In its latest intelligence update from the British defence ministry warned that Russia will ‘likely seek to inflate’ threat of Belarusian military drills to distract Ukrainian forces .
In the statement, the MoD said that “Belarusian land forces have been observed deploying from garrison to the field, for exercises,” it said. “This is in line with seasonal norms as Belarus enters the culmination of its Winter Training cycle in the month of May.”
The MoD added that Russia will “likely seek to inflate the threat posed to Ukraine by these exercises in order to fix Ukrainian forces in the north”.
PHOTO – A picture taken during a visit to Mariupol organized by the Russian military shows Russian serviceman on guard in the territory of the cargo sea port in Mariupol, Ukraine. EPA-EFE/SERGEI ILNITSKY
