Ukraine has lost its access to the Sea of Azov, as the country's defence ministry admitted late last night, even though it said in its statement that this was "temporary".
At the same time, the situation in Mariupol is more than desperate, with the city almost completely destroyed and fighting taking place in the streets of the centre.
More specifically, "the occupiers have partially succeeded in the Donetsk operational area, temporarily depriving Ukraine of access to the Sea of Azov," Ukraine's Defense Ministry said in a statement.
Russia said Friday that its forces are "tightening the cordon" around Mariupol, where an estimated 80 percent of the city's houses have been damaged, while about 1.000 people may remain trapped in makeshift shelters under the destroyed theatre.
Thousands of people in the city - which had a pre-war population of 460,000 - are living in shelters, deprived of electricity, heating and communication services, with food and water running out.
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[/P]The strategic position of Mariupol
We recall that Mariupol is strategically located on the Sea of Azov and as a result it has been under Russian attack since the first hours of the invasion on February 24.
The city is located on the route between the Russian-annexed Crimean peninsula in the west and the Donetsk region in the east, which is partly controlled by pro-Russian separatists.
See how Russian forces have surrounded the city
Fighting has trapped those trying to flee
Street fighting in the centre of besieged Mariupol are hampering efforts to evacuate civilians who had taken refuge in the basement of the city's theatre that was bombed by the Russian army last Wednesday.
In statements to the BBC, Mayor Vadim Boychenko said that rescue teams only manage to remove rubble and retrieve people only when there is a silence of gunfire.
"There are tanks here, artillery is shelling, the area is being fired with all kinds of weaponry,"
He adds: "Our forces are doing everything they can to hold their positions in the city but the enemy forces are bigger, unfortunately."
On Friday, authorities said 130 people had managed to escape and that more than 1,000 were still in the basement of the theatre, which withstood the attack.
Russia denies it bombed the building, which was clearly marked as a civilian shelter. The city's strategic port has been surrounded by Russian forces and an estimated 300,000 people are trapped without electricity, running water and heating.
How the Russians cut off access to the Sea of Azov
The Russians' big goal
Taking Mariupol would give the Russians control of the entire northern coast of the Sea of Azov, cutting Ukraine off from a critical pipeline to the Black Sea and allowing Moscow to form a land corridor to Crimea, the peninsula it illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
Source: in.gr
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