Russia is apparently running out of reconnaissance drones

After the conquest of Mariupol, Kyiv assumes a Russian advance

Ukraine fears a further advance by Russian troops after they have completely captured the port city of Mariupol and the Azov Steelworks. The Ukrainian military governor of the Luhansk region, Serhiy Hajday, reported massive fighting in the Donbass on Saturday. For example, the eastern Ukrainian city of Sievjerodonetsk has been under fire for days, there are dead and injured. “The Russians are wiping out Sieverodonetsk like Mariupol. Fighting is going on in the suburbs of the city,” Hajdaj said on the Telegram news channel.

The governor complained of aerial bombardments in the region, and that Russia wanted to reduce the area to rubble. At the same time, he dismissed statements by Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu that the Luhansk region was about to be completely captured as “nonsense”. Shoigu no longer has an overview of the situation of his own armed forces.

The Russian Defense Ministry said on Friday that the last Ukrainian fighters at the Azov steel plant in Mariupol had surrendered – more than 2,000 in total. This means that the city is completely under Russian control, it said. The Ukrainian General Staff in Kyiv said the enemy had started demining the area around the port to make it operational again.

According to the General Staff, the Russian armed forces are still trying to gain complete control over the Luhansk and Donetsk regions in order to secure a land corridor to the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014. From the Russian point of view, the capture of Mariupol is considered an important partial success.

Ukrainian authorities also reported fresh Russian attacks in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. In the Kiev district of the megacity, the market was shot at on Friday evening. Several merchant pavilions burned down. The published photos of the heavy destruction were initially not verifiable. (dpa)