After a night of intensive shelling meant to destroy the spirit of the city’s remaining defenders, Russian soldiers have launched what could be the decisive assault on the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol.

Bunker-buster bombs were purportedly thrown on the vast industrial facility that the Ukrainian military had converted into a fortress, retiring to the warren of tunnels beneath the factory after losing control of the city center.

According to Ukrainian authorities, at least 1,000 individuals have sought refuge in the subterranean corridors from the Russian bombing, but a last-minute attempt to establish a humanitarian corridor out of the plant appears to have failed. “The Russians refuse to open a corridor,” one of Ukraine’s deputy prime ministers, Iryna Vereshchuk, stated.

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