Mariupol steelworks troops lose contact with outside world as last stand looms

Russian forces have entered the territory of Mariupol's Azovstal steelworks, a Ukrainian politician said last night, as more civilians fled the city on evacuation buses following weeks of brutal bombardment that have reduced much of it to rubble.

- Jon Henley

“Attempts to storm the plant continue for the second day. Russian troops are already on the territory of Azovstal,” David Arakhamia, the head of the ruling party in parliament, told broadcaster RFE/RL, adding that as of yesterday evening contact remained between Ukraine's government and the Ukrainian troops staging a last stand in the plant.

Vadym Boichenko, the mayor of Mariupol, earlier said contact had been lost. "We have no way of knowing what's going on, whether they are safe or not,” he told Ukrainian » television.

The Kremlin's official spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, denied reports that Moscow's forces were trying to storm the plant. “The order was publicly given by (Vladimir Putin] to cancel the storming,” Peskov said. “There is no storming.”

It is not known whether any of the civilians trapped in the works, where about 200 people - including 30 children - remain, were among those who got out yesterday.

The convoy of evacuation buses, organised by the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross, was heading for the Ukrainian-controlled city of Zaporizhzhia, said the governor of Donetsk province, Pavlo Kyrylenko, but was not expected to arrive by yesterday.