Russian forces reportedly dropped a bomb on a hospital near Azovstal, the Mariupol steel plant where Ukrainian forces are concentrated. This was announced by Ukrainian parliamentarian Sergiy Taruta on Telegram. “According to my information, there are 300 people under the rubble, including children. Defenders and civilians with children were hiding in the still intact part of the hospital because in the destroyed city there is no longer any place to hide”. Read also A huge column of white smoke rises from the steel mill, writes the Guardian, showing the image in a video. Previously, on its social channels, the Security Service of Ukraine (Sbu) had warned: “The occupiers want to raze the Azovstal plant in Mariupol, where our fighters are defending themselves.” The Security Service leaked the wiretapping of a telephone conversation from a Russian soldier, who spoke of the Moscow military leadership’s decision to drop three-ton bombs on besieged Mariupol. “The occupiers – underlined the Sbu – are not even discouraged by the fact that civilians have taken refuge in the plant”. The Russian Defense Ministry had again asked the Ukrainian “nationalists” barricaded in the steel plant to surrender, in order to “save their lives”. “All those who lay down their arms will be guaranteed their life”, said the Ministry of Defense, inviting the Ukrainian troops to withdraw from the steel plant between 14 and 16 hours in Moscow, between 13 and 15 in Italy, “without exceptions, without weapons and without ammunition “.
The Russian government today announced the opening of three humanitarian corridors to evacuate the steel plant. In a note published on its web page, the Moscow Defense Ministry explained that the decision was taken “in the face of the catastrophic situation” in the steel plant and “following purely humanitarian principles”. The ministry explained that each of the convoys will consist of 30 buses and vehicles and ten ambulances and asked the government in Kiev to “show prudence and give appropriate instructions to the militiamen to put an end to the resistance”.