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LAST UPDATE | 3 May 2022
RUSSIAN FORCES LAUNCHED launched a major assault today on the Azovstal steel plant, the last holdout of Ukrainian forces in the devastated southern port city of Mariupol, as 101 civilians who had been trapped in the site for weeks were finally brought to safety.
“We are so thankful for everyone who helped us. There was a moment we lost hope, we thought everyone forgot about us,” evacuee Anna Zaitseva told AFP after arriving in the Ukrainian-held city of Zaporizhzhia, her six-month-old baby in her arms.
The United Nations and Red Cross said 101 people were evacuated from the maze of Soviet-era tunnels underneath the sprawling Azovstal plant as part of a five-day operation.
“Without a doubt, we will continue doing everything we can to get all our people out of Mariupol, out of Azovstal,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video address.
“It’s hard, but we need everyone, everyone who remains there — civilian and military.”
Another 58 people joined their convoy to Zaporizhzhia from the city of Mangush, outside Mariupol, said Osnat Lubrani, the UN’s Humanitarian coordinator for Ukraine.
She warned there “may be more civilians who remain trapped” in Azovstal, saying the UN was ready to return to bring them to safety.
But Russian forces resumed attacks on the steel plant, where the Ukrainian fighters are making their last stand in Mariupol after almost constant bombardment since Moscow’s invasion on 24 February.
It was one of a series of assaults today across Ukraine, where authorities said 21 civilians were killed in the eastern Donetsk region.
Ukraine’s ‘finest hour’
The war in Ukraine has killed thousands of people and displaced more than 13 million, creating the worst refugee crisis in Europe since World War II.
Western countries have backed Ukraine with cash and weapons while imposing unprecedented sanctions against Russia in a so far failed bid to make President Vladimir Putin pull back.
It comes as UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson became the first foreign leader to address the Ukrainian parliament since the war began in late February, promising £300 million (€358 million) in military aid.
Speaking via video link, Johnson evoked Britain’s fight against the Nazis in World War II in hailing Kyiv’s resistance as its “finest hour”, and vowed to help ensure “no-one will ever dare to attack you again”.
Johnson said Ukraine’s resistance had “exploded the myth” that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces were invincible and “written one of the most glorious chapters in military history and in the life of your country”.
“The so-called irresistible force of Putin’s war machine has broken on the immoveable object of Ukrainian patriotism and love of country,” he added, arguing the Russian leader was “sowing the seeds of catastrophe for himself and for his country”.
The new military support, which will include electronic warfare equipment, a counter battery radar system, GPS jamming equipment and thousands of night vision devices, is the latest defensive aid from London.
It represents a ramping up of support, after previously dispatching around £450 million in military equipment to Kyiv in several stages.
The European Commission meanwhile set out to put to member states a new package of measures, including a phased-out ban on Russian oil, officials said.
The package will also target Russia’s largest bank, Sberbank, which will be excluded from the global banking communications system SWIFT.
After talks yesterday, the European Union warned member states to prepare for a possible complete breakdown in gas supplies from Russia, insisting it would not cede to Moscow’s demand that imports be paid for in rubles.
Germany, Europe’s largest economy, was heavily dependent on Russian gas prior to the war, but European views quickly hardened after the invasion.
EU and French officials said the 27-member bloc was united with Poland and Bulgaria, whose gas supplies were cut last week after they refused to pay in rubles.
Deadly factory strike
In the early weeks of the invasion, Russian forces encircled Ukraine’s capital Kyiv but they have shifted to the east, including largely Russian-speaking areas, and the south.
In Donetsk, the regional governor said that 10 of the 21 dead today were killed in shelling of the Avdiivka coke plant, one of the largest in Europe.
In the town of Lyman, Ukrainian soldiers told AFP they have rigged with explosives a railway bridge over the Donets river and were waiting for orders to blow it up.
“It’s never easy to destroy one of your own pieces of infrastructure. But between saving a bridge or protecting a city, there’s no question at all,” said one, going by the nom de guerre of “The Engineer”.
Russia’s defence ministry meanwhile said its forces had struck a logistics centre at a military airfield in the region around the Black Sea port of Odessa, used for the delivery of foreign-made weapons.
Storage facilities containing Turkey’s Bayraktar drones as well as missiles and ammunition from the United States and Europe have been destroyed, it said.
A rocket strike also knocked out power in part of Lviv, the western city near Poland that has turned into a haven due to its comparative calm, Mayor Andriy Sadovy said on Twitter.
Ukrainian prosecutors say they have pinpointed more than 8,000 war crimes carried out by Russian troops and are investigating 10 Russian soldiers for suspected atrocities in the town of Bucha, near Kyiv.
But in a phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron today, Putin accused Ukrainian forces of committing war crimes and claimed the EU was “ignoring” them, according to the Kremlin.
The United States warned on Monday that Moscow was preparing imminently to annex the eastern regions of Lugansk and Donetsk, planning to “engineer referenda” to join Russia sometime in mid-May.
Pro-Russian separatists in the two regions declared independence in 2014, but Moscow has so far stopped short of formally incorporating them as it did that year with the Crimean peninsula.
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NATO aren’t helping at all.
Neither are the U.S. and most European countries.
Take the finger out and take Russia down!
@Madra: that would result in world war 3
@Madra: if only it was that simple
@Jim Buckley Barrett: You can only fold to their bluff so many times before you may as well take the risk.
@Paul Cunningham: are you sure he’s bluffing?
That’s one hell of a gamble.
@Jim Buckley Barrett: everyone loves a good trilogy am I right?
@Madra: a world war three is the last thing anyone wants. Russia they would for sure lose any large scale ground air or sea battle with western forces. They can’t even take over Ukraine .. what hope do they have against NATO ? However, with that Russia would just turn to its nuclear arsenal which is the largest stockpile in the world. And it’s naive to think that little old Ireland would be grand if that occurred.
@Paul Cunningham:
If Putin is dying as reports suggest he’s got nothing to lose by just going all out with whatever weapons he has at his disposal. I wouldn’t be calling his bluff.
@Ciaran: As Tony Stark put it ‘If we can’t protect the earth, you can be damn sure we’ll avenge it.’ We can’t do anything about it if the psycho in the Kremlin hits the nukes but Russia will be wiped off the face of the Earth in retaliation.
@Madra: Not as easy as that. And that would lead to WW3. Too much heart thinking as opposed to head thinking. The reaction from the west right now is subtle…and thankfully legal. Anything further will lead the world to apocalypse.
@Jim Buckley Barrett: He is bluffing. Russia have a nuclear doctrine. And it does not cover their invasion of Ukraine. Putin has lost it. Do you really think they’d allow him to push the button. Nato should go in there and put a stop to it.
@Jim Buckley Barrett: bring it on
@Jim Buckley Barrett: So be it then, or you think that slaughtering Ukraine people is acceptable as long as we are OK?
@Madra: “Take the finger out and take Russia down!” chills ! real life is nothing close to call of duty …
@Madra: it’s just as well that the generals and politicians are wiser than you.
@David F. Dwyer: I don’t think a military policy should be based on a fictional movie character..
@John Hagin Meade: John, what’s your solution? That NATO goes into a non-nato country in its defence and risk not only the destruction of Ukraine but the whole world?
Just out of interest, did you demand the same when the US and UK illegally invade Iraq?
@Vonvonic: Would you risk your life and the life of everyone on this planet in calling that bluff?
If you are happy to risk your life, then I would suggest signing up for the Ukraine army – https://visitukraine.today/blog/161/instruction-for-foreigners-on-how-to-join-international-legion-to-fight-for-ukraine.
@Jim Buckley Barrett: NATO are clearly of no use to Ukraine or anyone else. Individual countries could warn Russia to stop and then take military action if they wish. Regarding your ‘out of interest’ question. Yes, I have no time for the US war machine being used to protect US interests regardless of the destruction and death they leave behind them.
@Vonvonic: yes Russia have a nuclear use doctrine and it is unique among the declared nuclear powers in that it envisages first use of nukes. This changes to first use came in during Putin’s reign and effectively states that when the tide turns against Russian forces and they are at risk of losing they will commit a “limited” strike to halt the advance against them.
The Soviet leaders at least cared about their international standing and had been so scarred by the Second World War that they reluctantly settled into an armed standoff in nuclear weapons. Putin shows no such rational tendencies.
It really is comparable to Rwanda.
Bill Clinton described his inaction about Rwanda the greatest mistake of his life
@Michael Rossney: except this has the outcome of possible ww3.
@Michael Rossney: So agree. Funny he can admit that now, when out of office. Deplorable.
The pope should go to Ukraine first. Join with those suffering this war and would welcome solidarity with religious leaders. Pope Francis should be brave enough to say mass in Kyiv. A national capitol of a brave nation giving it’s blood to save Europe from Putin terror.
By going to Moscow, Pope Francis gives Putin another stage to sell his lies. Both within Russia and around the world. Sitting one side of that huge table opposite Putin would be a bad image any religious figure.
@leartius: The last Supper.
It looks like Boris the plonker and NATO are hellbent on leading the world towards nuclear catastrophe.
@Mike Dunne: the only party threatening nuclear action is Russia. Should we just let Russia do what they want as they have nuclear weapons?
@John Comerford: we just stand by and let the US do what it wants so why not let the Russians?.
@Mike Dunne: that very same country has threatened Ireland and the uk with nukes. propaganda or not.
Putin started this not the uk or NATO
But NATO will end it if they have to if their interests come under attack.
Nobody wants that to happen.
“With great power comes great responsibility”
@Mike Dunne: a plonker maybe, but A plonker that can be voted out
@alan scott: NATO won’t end it. If NATO attack russai then russai will end everything..
@Mike Dunne: itooks like you’ve got it all backwards.
@Mike Dunne: Incorrect, it was Putin that invaded Ukraine, not Borris…as a result of his illegal invasion Putin has lost 25 percent of his army and NATO has gained 2 new members, Finland and Sweden, the sooner Ireland NATO joins the better.
@Mike Dunne: @Mike Dunne: Incorrect, it was Putin that invaded Ukraine, not Boris…as a result of his illegal invasion Putin has lost 25 percent of his army and NATO has gained 2 new members, Finland and Sweden, the sooner Ireland joins NATO the better.
@Roy Dowling: Roy, this topic is about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. You are incapable of dealing with the topic in hand. You are like a broken record “but what about Iraq”. Yawn
@John Comerford: I knew that would get a reply John. So much for you saying you muted me and telling others to mute me.
@Roy Dowling: Roy please show me when I said I would mute you and/or recommended others to do the same? That is a total and utter lie. I look forward to your apology but I won’t hold my breath. You asked a question and I responded
@Roy Dowling: Roy you are right Gengis Khan did much worse – over 4m dead. The Russians are bad but what about those Mongolians. And what about the Romans – what did they ever do for us?
Good call by Pope Francis. It seems with the build up to 9th May next Monday (Victory Day) Putin is trying everything to justify this terrible WAR to his own people. If he fail He’s in trouble
What movie are you people watching?
@David Crosbie: Threads (1984) feels as relevant as ever.
@David F. Dwyer: and that was the start of it, demonise everything Russian
@David Crosbie: no just their Dictator
@Rian Lynch: so why are we canceling their sport, religion,arts etc?
@David F. Dwyer: Just watched it the other day. We should all have our funpacks ready. Christ!
@David Crosbie: Lol oh yeah, they’re a great bunch of lads. Just ask Poland and any other country they took over during the last century, or the millions they murdered through purges, forced famines, gulags, collectivisation and or just not being unquestionably loyal to their glorious leaders. Ask the people they clamped down on the civil rights of, the most basic of which is not being tortured, raped and murdered. And then of course there’s hacking a sovereign nation’s health service database and blackmailing them for the data, during a pandemic. What country did they do that to again? Ah, they’re just misunderstood.
@David Crosbie: because it’s funded by the Russian government.
We have to stop the leak and Control it.
Dont get me wrong the majority of Russian people are lovely and they see this war for what it is.
putin should have realised this at the start.
Any decent leader would take those who elected them and interests first.
Just my opinion.
@David Crosbie: You have no idea 3 months into the illegal invasion of a European sovereign country?
@David F. Dwyer: if you only see the past you’ll never see the future
@alan scott: I appreciate your opinion in regards to not all Russians are bad, which is my argument wholeheartedly
@David Crosbie: — When did the Russians get their religion cancelled? I know there’s a new “Rasputin” Russian Orthodox friend of Putin who is encouraging the action against Ukraine, but I wasn’t aware that Russian Orthodoxy had been cancelled as a result.
@David Crosbie: you know why. Don’t yoy?
@David Crosbie: The genocide in Ukraine is happening right now. Any other pearls of wisdom you’d like to share with us, grasshopper?
@alan scott: the Russian people are not lovely. Spent time there – the hatred of the west in ingrained in them. This is not a small minority
Putin the warmonger needs some kind of victory to justify his illegal war back home by April 9th when it looks like he is going to declare all out war on Ukraine…
@Charles Coughlan: I assume you mean May 9
@Charles Coughlan: well he’s failed..
@Charles Coughlan: Great Scott!!!
@Jonathan O’Riordan: 7 years retirement does that to me sometimes Jonathan, thanks…
@Charles Coughlan: true. In other words he needs some sort of fudged “victory”. Even though he deserves total defeat, humiliation and to be put away for the rest of his short mad life.
But refuses to answer questions in his own parliament.
Boris giving a wink and a nod saying Russian dirty money is safe.
have your say