Ukraine accuses Russia of violating ceasefire commitments, says fighting rages

“It is now the third day that Russian forces have entered the Azovstal plant. Bloody fighting is still going on“, said Sviatoslav Palamar, deputy commander of the Azov battalion.

Palamar accused Russian forces of breaking their commitment to allow civilians to leave the factory area through the evacuation corridor on May 5.

“Once again, the Russian side violated the ceasefire commitment and did not let the civilians still hiding in the basement of the Azovstal factory evacuate here.,” said Mr. Palamar.

Earlier, the Kremlin denied that Russian soldiers had entered the Azovstal steel plant, and said that the humanitarian corridor here was still operating.

“The President ordered the cancellation of the planned invasion of the Azovstal steel plant. No further orders have been issued and humanitarian corridors are still open today (May 5),” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Peskov also compared the entrenched forces at the Azovstal factory to terrorists. According to the Kremlin spokesman, the fact that Ukrainian forces at the Azovstal factory wanted to exchange civilians detained there for food and medicine was the same as the previous request of terrorists in Syria.

Earlier, a representative of the Russian Command in charge of operations in the Azovstal plant area told Russia’s Ria Novosti news agency: “We have seen such methods before, for example in Syria”, where terrorists also seek to exchange people for food.

According to Ria Novosti“more than 200 civilians, including women, children and the elderly may still be held in Azovstal’s underground bunkers and bunkers”.