Some 2,000 Ukrainian fighters are believed to be holed up beneath Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol. Ukraine said a few hundred civilians were also trapped there.
typically have to pass through contested areas and many checkpoints before reaching relative safety in the Ukrainian-controlled city of Zaporizhzhia, about 140 miles to the northwest, where many have gathered.
"People literally rot like our jackets did," said 31-year-old Serhii Kuzmenko, who fled along with his wife, 8-year-old daughter and four others from their bunker, where 30 others were left behind. "They need our help badly. We need to get them out." The fall of Mariupol would deprive Ukraine of a vital port, allow Russia to establish a land corridor to the Crimean Peninsula, which it seized from Ukraine in 2014, and free up troops to fight elsewhere in the Donbas, the eastern industrial region that the Kremlin says is now its chief objective. Its capture also holds symbolic value since the city has been the scene of some of the worst suffering of the war and a surprisingly fierce resistance.
The goal could be to push Russian forces out of artillery range of the city, which has been pummeled by strikes, as well as forcing Moscow to divert troops from other areas of the front line, according to an assessment from the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War on Thursday.The British Defense Ministry said Russia may be struggling to execute its plan in the Donbas partly because it's bogged down at the plant in Mariupol.