With the number of defenders left holed up in a Mariupol steel factory dwindling, Russian commanders will be coming under increasing pressure to reallocate troops from the strategic southern port city to bolster their offensive in eastern Ukraine, Britain's Defense Ministry said Friday.
Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram
More than 1,700 defenders of the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol have surrendered since Monday, Russian authorities said, in what appeared to be the final stage in the nearly three-month siege of the now-pulverized port city.
In fighting in the eastern Donbas region, 12 people were killed and 60 houses destroyed when Russia shelled the neighboring cities of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk, northwest of Luhansk, regional governor Serhiy Haidai said in a Telegram post on Friday.
In addition to Thursday's artillery attack, Russian ground troops attempted to assault Severodonetsk but took losses and retreated, Ukraine's General Staff said in its morning update.
In Mariupol, an unknown number of defenders remain in the sprawling Azovstal complex, which is the last bastion of Ukrainian resistance in the city – a target from the start of the invasion that has been under effective Russian control for some time.
If the factory falls, Russia will likely use troops from the city to reinforce operations elsewhere in the industrial Donbas region, but the duration of the stiff resistance will complicate or prolong that maneuver, Britain's Ministry of Defense said in a daily intelligence report.
"Staunch Ukrainian resistance in Mariupol since the start of the war means Russian forces in the area must be re-equipped and refurbished before they can be redeployed effectively," the ministry wrote on Twitter.
"Russian commanders, however, are under pressure to demonstrably achieve operational objectives. That means that Russia will probably redistribute their forces swiftly without adequate preparation, which risks further force attrition."
Analysts have said it is likely that most of the Russian forces that were tied down by the battle there have already left. How long the remaining troops in the Azovstal factory can still hold out, however, is not clear.
In a brief video message Thursday, the deputy commander of the Azov Regiment, which led the defense of the steel mill, said he and other fighters were still inside.
"An operation is underway, the details of which I will not announce," Svyatoslav Palamar said.
Ukrainian troops, bolstered by Western weapons, thwarted Russia's initial goal of storming the capital, Kyiv, and have put up stiff resistance against Moscow's forces in the Donbas, which President Vladimir Putin now has set his sights on capturing.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said Thursday that it had gathered personal information from hundreds of the soldiers who had surrendered – name, date of birth, closest relative – and registered them as prisoners as part of its role in ensuring the humane treatment of POWs under the Geneva Conventions.
Amnesty International said in a tweet that the POW status means that the soldiers "must not be subjected to any form of torture or ill-treatment."
At least some of the fighters were taken by the Russians to a former penal colony in territory controlled by Moscow-backed separatists. Others were hospitalized, according to a separatist official.
Russian state television distributed a video showing what it said were wounded Ukrainian soldiers from the Azovstal plant in a hospital in the Donetsk region.
The disheveled men, three to a room, lay in beds as they were fed and seen to by doctors and nurses. A doctor, identified only as Natalya, said most were in serious condition with multiple fractures and that many would need prosthetic limbs. One unidentified Ukrainian patient winced and groaned as a nurse changed a bandage on his leg.
"The most important thing is that the leg was saved," he said in Russian. "The pain can be endured."
While Ukraine expressed hope for a prisoner exchange, Russian authorities have threatened to investigate some of the Azovstal fighters for war crimes and put them on trial, branding them "Nazis" and criminals.
The Azov Regiment's far-right origins have been seized on by the Kremlin as part of an effort to cast Russia's invasion as a battle against Nazi influence in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, in the first war crimes trial held by Ukraine, Sgt. Vadim Shishimarin, a 21-year-old member of a Russian tank unit, told a court in Kyiv on Thursday that he shot Oleksandr Shelipov, a 62-year-old Ukrainian civilian, in the head on orders from an officer.
Shishimarin apologized to the victim's widow, Kateryna Shelipova, who described seeing her husband being shot just outside their home in the early days of Russia's invasion.
She told the court that she believes Shishimarin deserves a life sentence, the maximum possible, but that she wouldn't mind if he were exchanged as part of a swap for the Azovstal defenders.
Also, the Senate whisked a $40 billion package of military, economic, and food aid for Ukraine and US allies to final congressional approval Thursday.
The legislation, approved 86-11, was backed by every voting Democrat and most Republicans. While many issues under President Joe Biden have collapsed under party-line gridlock, Thursday's lopsided vote signaled that both parties were largely unified about sending Ukraine the materiel it needs to fend off Russian President Vladimir Putin's more numerous forces.
"I applaud the Congress for sending a clear bipartisan message to the world that the people of the United States stand together with the brave people of Ukraine as they defend their democracy and freedom," Biden said in a written statement.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked the United States. "This is a demonstration of strong leadership and a necessary contribution to our common defense of freedom," he said in his nightly video address to the nation.
Passage came as Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US had drawn down another $100 million worth of Pentagon weapons and equipment to ship to Kyiv, bringing total US materiel sent there since the invasion began to $3.9 billion. He and other administration officials had warned that authority would be depleted by Thursday, but the new legislation will replenish the amount available by more than $8 billion.
Overall, around $24 billion in the measure is for arming and equipping Ukrainian forces, helping them finance weapons purchases, replacing US equipment dispatched to the theater, and paying for American troops deployed in nearby countries.
Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!
There is also $9 billion to keep Ukraine's government afloat and $5 billion to feed countries around the globe reliant on Ukraine's now diminished crop yields. And there is money to help Ukrainian refugees in the US, seize Russian oligarchs' assets, reopen the US embassy in Kyiv and prosecute Russian war crimes.
The measure, which officials have said is designed to last through September, tripled the size of the initial $13.6 billion in Ukraine aid that lawmakers approved shortly after the February invasion.
The combined $54 billion price tag exceeds what the US has spent annually on all its military and economic foreign assistance in recent years, and approaches Russia's yearly military budget.
"Help is on the way, really significant help. Help that could make sure that the Ukrainians are victorious," said Schumer, voicing a goal that seemed nearly unthinkable when Russia first launched its brutal attack.
In other developments, Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke by phone on Thursday with his Russian counterpart for the first time since the war began, and they agreed to keep the lines of communications open, the Pentagon said.
