German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock warns of a humanitarian catastrophe.
(Photo: Reuters)
Dusseldorf Viewers of Russian state television know that when a meeting between Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu and Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin is broadcast on the main news, they can expect important news. The Russian military had taken control of the embattled port city of Mariupol in south-eastern Ukraine, was the Foreign Minister’s message on Thursday.
A little later, the propaganda of the Moscow state television showed how Russian tanks and vehicles rolled out of the city – to new destinations. The pro-Russian separatists in Donbas want to take over the entire Luhansk and Donetsk regions with the help of Moscow.
In Mariupol, “all important objects of the city infrastructure, including the seaport and the fairway,” were mined, Shoigu emphasized. Many foreign ships could no longer leave the port. In the next breath, however, Shoigu qualified his jubilant news: “The remaining Ukrainian combat units,” said the foreign minister, “have entrenched themselves on the industrial site of the Azovstal factory.”
According to the will of President Putin, the steelworks should not be taken for the time being. “I don’t think it’s necessary to storm the area,” Putin said in front of the cameras. It is not necessary to enter the catacombs under the plant. And addressed to Shoigu: “I order you to call off the operation.” Instead, Russian troops would hermetically seal off the area.
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“Not even a fly” may enter the area undetected. Putin promised the Ukrainian soldiers on the factory premises that they would escape with their lives if they surrendered. However, time is running out, which the defense minister immediately specified: In three to four days, according to Shoigu, the industrial complex should also be taken.
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Ukraine reacted promptly to the television appearance of the two Russians and contradicted Shoigu. Russia understands that it cannot take the Mariupol steelworks by force, says Oleksiy Arestovych, a close adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. “They can’t take Azovstal, they understand that, because they have suffered enormous losses there.” The Russian troops had not made any significant gains on the main fronts in the past 24 hours.
According to its own statements, Russia has taken the port city. Mariupol has been largely destroyed, but the evacuation is slow.
(Photo: Reuters)
The Ukrainian government once again called for a humanitarian corridor for the people who are still holed up in the steelworks. “There are about 1,000 civilians and 500 wounded soldiers who need to be taken out of Azovstal!” Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk wrote on the Telegram news channel.
Only four buses with civilians have left the war-ravaged port city of Mariupol in the past 24 hours. Vereshchuk called on the international community to focus all efforts on the steel mill: “This is now the key point and the key moment for humanitarian efforts.”
Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, on a state visit to Estonia on Thursday, also warned of a humanitarian catastrophe. The situation there is “hard to bear” and the remaining people in Mariupol urgently need to be evacuated. “It underscores the brutality with which the Russian government wages war,” emphasized Baerbock. In Mariupol, the world is witnessing “a city bleeding out, a city being starved.” The federal government is working flat out to create humanitarian corridors.
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The city of Mariupol, which once had a population of more than 400,000, has been fiercely fought over since the beginning of the war and has been surrounded by Russian troops for weeks. Attempts to evacuate the civilians largely failed. According to Russian Foreign Minister Shoigu, more than 140,000 of them were allowed to leave the city. Almost 1,500 fighters have already surrendered from the Ukrainian forces surrounding the steel plant.
Mariupol on the Azov Sea is considered strategically important. The city lies between the pro-Russian, self-proclaimed People’s Republics of Luhansk and Donetsk and the Crimean Peninsula, annexed by Russia in 2014.
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