The Latest Breaking News from Azovstal

Russian President Vladimir Putin's decision to blockade the Azovstal steel plant in Ukraine likely indicates a desire to contain resistance in Mariupol, a British military update said on Friday.

Russia has claimed control of the eastern Ukrainian city of Mariupol, but President Volodymyr Zelensky says as many as 120,000 civilians remain trapped there, including hundreds in bunkers below the Azovstal steelworks. Is this the shape of things to come in other cities in the Donbas region now targeted by…

Paris (AFP) - Russia on Thursday claimed to have taken control of the strategic Ukrainian port of Mariupol after more than seven weeks of fighting that reduced most of the besieged city to rubble. 

Ukrainian fighters were clinging to their last redoubt in Mariupol after Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed victory in the biggest battle of the war, declaring the port city "liberated" following weeks of relentless bombardment.

Ukraine's deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk on Thursday demanded Russia urgently allow the evacuation of civilians and wounded soldiers from the besieged Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol via a humanitarian corridor.

About 120 civilians living next to the Azovstal steel works in the besieged Ukrainian port of Mariupol have left via humanitarian corridors, the Interfax news agency reported on Tuesday, quoting Russian state TV.

Russia on Tuesday called on Ukrainian forces and foreign fighters holed up in the Azovstal metallurgical plant in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol to lay down their arms by noon Moscow time (0900 GMT) if they wanted to live.

No fewer than 1,000 civilians are hiding in underground shelters beneath the vast Azovstal steel plant in the southeastern Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, the city council said on Monday, adding that Russia was dropping heavy bombs onto the Ukrianian-held factory in the besieged city.

There have been no reports of activity in the strategic city of Mariupol following a Russian ultimatum warning Ukrainian forces to lay down their arms.