A Ukrainian commander holed up at the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol warned he would lose contact with the outside world amid reports of heavy fighting at the plant.
Serhiy Volynskyi, of the 36th Marine Brigade, sent his last known message as Russian forces attempted to storm the defenders’ final redoubt.
Desperate conditions inside include reports of injured servicemen who have lost limbs, with one civilian allowed to emerge into the daylight after weeks underground describing the shelter as ‘hell’.
In his message to a board member at the pro-Ukraine Razom organisation this morning, Mr Volynskyi said: ‘Hi everything is very complicated.
‘Soon there won’t be any reception.’
The Russian bombardment of the hideout was said to have intensified this evening, with an advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy saying a full-scale assault was underway.
Maryna Prykhodko, another Razom board member, told Metro.co.uk: ‘Since Tuesday, after the evacuation of just a small number of civilians, not the wounded or the soldiers, from the steelworks, the Russian army has been attacking Azovstal with increased intensity.
‘The situation is even more critical now than it was two weeks ago.
‘There are reports that the Russian army has in fact infiltrated the plant, which leaves no chance for survival for anyone, thousands of people, still hiding there and using the plant for shelter.
‘Only a miracle can save them now. But it’s not too late for another evacuation or extraction.’
Intense fighting was said by the city’s mayor to have broken out today at the sprawling complex, where 200 civilians are thought to remain.
Around 156 civilians were rescued between Friday and Monday through a joint Red Cross and UN operation, with many of those emerging giving harrowing accounts of the appalling conditions inside and of their treatment by Russian forces as they made their way out.
It is unclear how many soldiers remain in the Soviet-era factory, with Russia putting the figure at around 2,000. Another 100,000 civilians remain in the southern port city, which has been almost reduced to ruins after being subjected to a brutal siege by Moscow’s regular and proxy forces.
Mayor Vadym Boichenko said this morning that contact had been lost with the Ukrainian defenders amid ‘heavy fighting’ at the plant.
Mr Boichenko told a national TV channel that there was no way of finding out ‘what’s going on, whether they are safe or not’.
Mr Zelenskyy last night accused Moscow of carrying out ‘massive strikes at Azovstal’ and trying to storm the plant in violation of evacuation agreements that had allowed the UN-Red Cross operation to take place.
He said the evacuations so far were ‘not a victory yet, but it’s already a result’, adding: ‘I believe there’s still a chance to save other people.’
Shelling continued to target the last pocket of resistance overnight, with survivors telling of living without running water or electricity for six weeks.
Footage appeared to show Russian forces using devastating thermobaric rockets, also known as vacuum bombs, to pound the steelworks as tanks and troops moved into the surrounding area.
The loss of communications heightens fears for those still trapped inside what has become the epicentre for one of the most brutal onslaughts by Russian forces and their proxies since the invasion began 70 days ago.
Survivor Elina Vasylivna, 54, was one of those who managed to leave the last position occupied by Ukrainian troops in the city.
She told the Daily Mail: ‘They took our fingerprints, took pictures. My head was spinning. The militia did a questionnaire and asked us how we feel about the war, about our government. They called us “Ukrainian scum”.’
Another survivor is said to have whispered in the ear of a World Health Organisation doctor: ‘I’m out of hell.’
On the Telegram messaging app, Sviatoslav Palamar, deputy commander of Ukraine’s Azov Regiment, said: ‘We’ll do everything that’s possible to repel the assault, but we’re calling for urgent measures to evacuate the civilians that remain inside the plant and to bring them out safely.’
In an intelligence briefing this morning, the UK Ministry of Defence said that Russia was continuing an effort to intensify its military assault on a swathe of eastern Ukraine in and around the Donbass region.
A map on the department’s Twitter feed showed groupings of forces around Mariupol as well as in Donetsk and Luhansk to the north.
The UK has pledged a further £300 million of defensive weaponry to Ukraine as it continues to mount fierce resistance to the invasion, which is predicted to intensify as Russia marks its Victory Day on Monday.
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