Moscow. March 8, (dpa/GNA) – Units of pro-Russian separatists are continuing to advance in the embattled Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, Moscow says.
Fighters from the self-proclaimed People’s Republic of Donetsk have already advanced almost 1 kilometre since a ceasefire in the city ended, the Russian Defence Ministry announced.
Mariupol, a strategically important port on the Sea of Azov, has been besieged for days, and the conditions for the remaining civilian residents are believed to be dire. Several attempts to evacuate the city have failed, though it was impossible to verify that independently.
According to their own reports, separatists and Russian units have both been seeing other successes elsewhere in eastern Ukraine.
Leonid Pasechnik, the head of the self-styled People’s Republic of Luhansk, said that the town of Popasna had been captured and that Ukrainian forces had been encircled.
GNA