Russia began storming the Azovstal steel mill in Mariupol on Tuesday with civilians still trapped inside – as others who had been evacuated from the bombed-out plant reached safer territory and spoke of the “hell” of constant shelling.
The site had become last pocket of resistance in the Ukrainian port city, whose capture would allow Russia to establish a land corridor to the Crimean Peninsula and free up troops for fighting elsewhere in the Donbas.
