Fighting blocks evacuation of civilians at Ukraine steel plant

ZAPORIZHZHIA REUTERS May 5 -Scores of civilians, many of them women and children, remained trapped on Thursday in underground bunkers at a steel works, the last Ukrainian holdout in the ruined city of Mariupol.   

 A Ukrainian fighter who said he was holed up in the vast Azovstal steel works accused Russian forces of breaching the plant’s defences, in violation of Moscow’s ceasefire pledge, for a third day. 

 
 “Heavy, bloody fighting is going on,” said Captain Sviatoslav Palamar, a deputy commander of Ukraine’s Azov Regiment, in a video posted online.   

 Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych also said fighting had continued in the steel works but gave no details. Russia’s military did not immediately comment.   

Meanwhile rt.com reported the Russian military announced a new unilateral pause in its operation at the Azovstal steelworks plant in Mariupol, promising to open humanitarian corridors for civilians said to be holed up at the facility.