Contents tagged with Mariupol

  • Pro-Moscow separatist leader says tribunal being prepared for captured Ukrainian soldiers in Mariupol

    The head of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic, Denis Pushilin, said the pro-Moscow separatist government will soon hold tribunals for captured Ukrainian servicemen in Mariupol, Russia’s Interfax news agency reported.

    "Preparations are underway for preliminary tribunals or intermediate tribunals. One of the first will be held in Mariupol, everything is moving towards this," Pushilin said.

    The separatist leader told Rossiya 24 that he does not rule out the death penalty for members of the …

  • Russia wants to impose a ban on exchanging Azov fighters for Russian POWs

    Speaker of the Russian State Duma of Russia Vyacheslav Volodin asked the parliament committee to prepare a bill to ban an exchange of "war criminals" for prisoners. According to Volodin the fighters of the Ukrainian regiment "Azov" are “such criminals”.

    The proposal not to exchange Azov fighters for prisoners of war was initially made by the Russian MP, Anatoly Wasserman. He pointed out that Ukraine considers the withdrawal of the Azov fighters the first step towards their liberation through …

  • Leader of so-called Donetsk People’s Republic plans to make Mariupol ‘a resort town’

    The leader of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic, Denis Pushilin, said he plans to turn the destroyed city of Mariupol into a “resort town”, Russia’s state-controlled TASS news agency reported.

    After lighting the Eternal Flame at the city’s Victims of Fascism memorial in the Primorsky district, Pushilin stated "Russia is here forever, and you are finally home. Now this is the territory of the Donetsk People's Republic forever. No one will take it away from us.”

    "We have strength, we have …

  • Pentagon says Russian forces are beginning to leave Mariupol for the Donbas

    The Pentagon has said a significant number of Russian troops are beginning to withdraw from the beleaguered port city of Mariupol and are being deployed to the Donbas, the Washington Post reported. The Pentagon believes the forces are heading northwest to Zaporizhzhia oblast, south of the city of Dnipro.

    An anonymous defense official told the Washington Post the Pentagon does not consider Russia to have completely seized Mariupol. The Kremlin has claimed victory in the city, despite the fact …

  • CEO: Azovstal had prepared for Russian invasion since 2014, but supplies may have run out

    The CEO of the firm that own Azovstal Iron & Steel Works in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol says the facility had started preparing for a possible Russian invasion in 2014, Sky News reported.

    In an interview with the British news agency, CEO of the Mariupol-based mining and metallurgy group Metinvest Holding, Yuriy Ryzhenkov, said “The situation there is, I would say, a humanitarian catastrophe.”

    He noted that he wasn’t sure how many people were still at the plant, but that Azovstal has …

  • Ukrainian Deputy PM says no agreement made with Moscow to evacuate Azovstal plant in Mariupol

    Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for the Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine, Iryna Vereshchuk, said no agreement has been reached to evacuate civilians from the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol.

    "Today, the Russian side once again announced the existence of a corridor for civilians to leave Azovstal," Vereshchuk stated on Telegram. "This could be believed if the Russians had not broken the humanitarian corridors many times before. I know what I am …

  • Head of Kremlin-backed 'Donetsk People's Republic' orders formation of city administration for Mariupol

    The head of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic, Denis Pushilin, has issued a decree ordering the formation of a city administration for the city of Mariupol, according to Russia’s TASS news agency.

    The city, which is in the Donetsk region but has been controlled by the Ukrainian government since pieces of Donetsk broke away in 2014, has been besieged by Russian forces since March 1st.

    "A local administration of the Donetsk People’s Republic is to be formed in the city of Mariupol," the …

  • Mayor of Mariupol: City needs ‘complete evacuation’

    Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko said the entire city requires evacuation, Ukrainskaya Pravda reported. The city has been besieged by Russian forces since March 1st.

    "Those people who remained in the city – our respected, heroic Mariupol residents – are beyond a humanitarian catastrophe,” Boychenko stated on television.

    Mariupol had a pre-war population of more than 430,000, of which an estimated 160,000 remain in the city.

    “About 160,000 people, according to our estimates, are in the besieged …

  • Ukrainian city of Mariupol to purchase Iron Dome air defense system from Israel

    Deputy Mayor of Mariupol Sergey Zakharov said that the city authorities plan to purchase the Iron Dome missile defense system from Israel.

    According to him, the opening of the airport in Mariupol requires that the distance from the zone of demarcation of the warring parties was more than 160 kilometers, but it is only about 40. Since the Ukrainian Defense Ministry and the international community do not consider the flights to the city located near the conflict zone safe, the mayor's office of …

  • EU ready to allocate funds to Ukraine for improvement of transport connection with Mariupol

    The European Union is ready to finance the improvement of the transport connection between Mariupol and the rest of Ukraine, reported the press service of the the Ministry of Infrastructure after the meeting between Ukraine's infrastructure minister Volodymyr Omelyan and EU Ambassador Hugues Mingarelli.

    Mingarelli said that Brussels is ready to support the projects for the improvement of the Zaporizhia-Mariupol railway link and the construction of the Mariupol-Mykolaiv freeway.

    Kyiv and the …