KYIV, Ukraine—Russian and Ukrainian forces are battling on the city streets of Mariupol, officials said Saturday, as Moscow aims to create a corridor between Russia and its annexed region of Crimea.
During three weeks of bombardment and attack, Ukrainians said they had kept Russian forces at bay on the outskirts of the southern port city, but that has changed. “The fighting is already in the city itself,” an official from the mayor’s office said via text message. “But Mariupol remains a Ukrainian city.”
Government forces in Ukraine said they kept up the resistance Saturday. “Fierce battles between the defenders of Mariupol and the occupier continue, including on the city streets,” said a report on the Telegram channel of the volunteer group Azov Battalion, whose members have been fighting alongside regular government forces inside the city.
“The military repulses the enemy, who does not stop the attack on Mariupol with his artillery and aircraft,” the report said.
The capture of Mariupol would be a key victory for Russia, which has so far failed to take any major Ukrainian cities. It would free up its forces to encircle Ukrainian army units in eastern regions and push further toward the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv.
In the southern city of Mykolaiv, Russian missile strikes hit the headquarters of the Ukrainian army’s 79th brigade, including the quarters where officers’ families live. Several buildings collapsed and footage from the scene, broadcast on Ukrainian television channels, showed a small child being dug out from the rubble. Ukrainian officials say 40 people, and possibly more, have been killed.
Vitaliy Kim, the governor of Mykolaiv, said in a video recording that the “cowardly” Russian strike targeted sleeping soldiers, and that rescue operations at the site are under way. The Ukrainian military counteroffensive in the region is pressing ahead, he added.
As Russian forces have pounded Mariupol with airstrikes and artillery, the city has emerged as a symbol of tough Ukrainian resistance as well as civilian suffering. Thousands of the city’s 400,000 have fled, and thousands have been killed, some dumped into mass graves, officials said.
Areas no longer controlled by Ukraine as of Friday
Direction of invasion forces
Controlled by or allied to Russia
Primary refugee crossing locations
Chernobyl
Not in operation
Ukraine territory, recognized by Putin as independent
Convtrolled by
separatists
Areas no longer controlled by Ukraine as of Friday
Direction of invasion forces
Controlled by or allied to Russia
Ukraine territory, recognized by Putin as…
Read More: Ukrainian Forces Try to Hold Mariupol as Combat Reaches City Streets