Final assault will overrun Mariupol ‘in matter of days’

Russian forces are preparing for a final assault to overrun the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, with the US expecting it to fall within days.

A Ukrainian serviceman walks the front line north of Kyiv on Thursday. Picture: AFP

The siege of Mariupol is drawing to a bloody close as Russian forces prepare for a final assault on the encircled port on the Sea of Azov.

US defence analysts said the city was likely to fall in a matter of days. In a sign the centre was close to being overrun, journalists working for Russian state media released a news report from outside Mariupol’s theatre, a symbol of the city’s destruction.

Drone footage captured over Mariupol shows much of the city reduced to rubble, with residents scurrying between burnt-out buildings.

A Russia Today TV camera crew filmed from outside the bombed-out shell of the theatre where Ukrainian officials believe 300 people died in a bomb attack last month. Civilians had been sheltering in the theatre, which was clearly marked with the Russian word for “children”.

A ferocious battle is under way between Russian and Ukrainian forces in Izyum, the gateway to the Donbas region. The eastern town of 50,000 people has been slowly cut off from the world, and there are warnings it has become a new Mariupol. Officials say the humanitarian situation in Izyum is dire, with no heating, water or electricity and civilians buried in parks and gardens. About 20,000 people are thought to remain in the town. The deputy mayor has described Izyum as “hell”.

Moscow claimed victory in Izyum last week, saying it had “completely taken control” of the town. However, Western officials said that Ukrainian forces remain encamped on the south bank of the Donets river, holding off the Russian assault from the north.

Last week, the Kremlin announced the second phase of its ­operation to “demilitarise and denazify” Ukraine, with a renewed emphasis on capturing Luhansk and Donetsk, two separatist regions in the east of the country where fighting has been going on since the 2014 annexation of Crimea.

A destroyed Russian tank in front of a damaged house Malaya Rohan. A Ukrainian commander said last Friday that his forces had retaken the area. Picture: Getty Images

Izyum is on the edge of Ukrainian-controlled territory in the east of the country, sandwiched between one Russian group pushing southeast from Kharkiv and another advancing from Luhansk. The two groupings are attempting to link up, but Ukrainian forces have dug in at Izyum, destroying bridges over the Donets.

Western officials said that Russia’s failure to capture Izyum and rebuild the destroyed bridges was indicative of the wider logistical problems that have plagued its military since the outset of the war.

One official said that the Kremlin’s plan to encircle and capture the Donbas would be a challenge given that the performance of the Russian military on offensive manoeuvres has been “not spectacular” so far. “It’s an easy thing to draw some arrows on a map and write the word ‘envelop’ on it. It’s a fundamentally different thing to have to try and achieve that on the ground,” the official said.

The Ukrainian defence ministry said a pro-Kremlin local politician was responsible for helping Russian forces enter the town. Anatoliy Fomychevskyi, a member of Izyum’s council, has been charged with treason by the Ukrainian government for escorting the invading forces down an unprotected road into the centre of the town.

Satellite image shows extensive damage to the Mariupol theatre and nearby buildings on March 29. Picture: Maxar Technologies via AFP

Russian troops are being redeployed to Izyum to finally crush the Ukrainian resistance, the Institute for the Study of War, a US think tank, has said.

The Russian defence ministry has also flown in 1000 battle-hardened mercenaries from the Wagner Group to the Donbas, accor­ding to Western intelligence. Ukrainian units fighting in the area are themselves among the most fearsome at Kyiv’s disposal, having been involved in battles for eight years.

Volodymyr Matsokin, the deputy mayor of Izyum, compared the town’s plight to Mariupol’s.

“It’s hell, but Ukrainian forces are fighting back,” he told Radio Liberty. “The whole world is talking about Mariupol. That’s understandable and right. But our situation is no better. We have not had electricity, water, gas or heating for three and a half weeks. The whole picture is appalling, people are being buried in parks, in gardens, in front of buildings.”

The Times