Planes, artillery, tanks, infantry: Russians storm Azovstal with everything they can

VALENTYNA ROMANENKO — WEDNESDAY, 11 MAY, 2022, 12:31 PM

Russian troops continue to carry out airstrikes and bomb the Azovstal iron and steel works in the besieged city of Mariupol.

Source: Azov Regiment

Literally: "Over the past day, 38 aircraft flew to the territory of the Azovstal plant, which is defended by the defenders of Mariupol, including 4 sorties of strategic bombers.

Also, enemy barrel artillery, tanks, and so on do not stop working. The Russian occupying forces do not stop trying to capture the Ukrainian fortress and continue to carry out daily assaults with the support of infantry."

What preceded it: Illia Samoilenko, an Intelligence Directorate officer from the Azov Regiment, said that his unit cannot surrender to the Russians, because it has an order to keep the Azovstal defence in Mariupol and cannot violate it.

Background:

•       The other day, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky stated that lifting the blockade in Mariupol by military means now is impossible due to the lack of heavy weapons.
•       It also reported that Russia does not give consent to any of the options proposed by Ukraine to save the Ukrainian military in Mariupol. 
•       The Ukrainian president warned that the destruction of Ukrainian military and civilians by the Russians at Azovstal in Mariupol will make further negotiations with the Russian Federation impossible.
•       Women, children and the elderly were evacuated from Azovstal in several stages until 7 May inclusively. Medics and the wounded, as the authorities had hoped, could not be evacuated. Russian troops continue to storm and fire at the Azovstal plant.
•       Mariupol has been under siege by the Russian army since 1 March. Since the end of April, Ukrainian defenders have been blockaded at the Azovstal plant, but continue to fight.