A Ukrainian fighter holed up in a vast steel works in the southern city of Mariupol accused Russian forces of breaking a promise to allow a ceasefire on Thursday (May 5) so that civilians could be evacuated.

Captain Sviatoslav Palamar, a deputy commander of Ukraine's Azov Regiment, posted a video online purported to be shot in the Azovstal steel works where Mariupol's last defenders are holding out with an estimated 200 civilians.

Reuters was unable to independently verify the authenticity of the video.

"It is the third day that the enemy has entered the Azovstal steel plant. Heavy, bloody fighting is going on," Palamar said.

He appealed to the international community for help in evacuating civilians and urged President Volodymr Zelenskiy to do all he could to evacuate wounded fighters.

Russia's military did not immediately comment. It said on Wednesday (May 4) it would open humanitarian corridors from the steel plant on Thursday, Friday (May 6) and Saturday (May 7) to allow civilians to leave.

Moscow declared victory over Mariupol on April 21 after weeks of siege and shelling, but fierce resistance by the Ukrainian forces holed up in the Azovstal steel works has prevented Russia completely overrunning the city.

Russia has denied targeting civilians in its "special military operation" in Ukraine and each side has blamed the other for the collapse of local ceasefires and failure to arrange humanitarian corridors.

The Azov Regiment began as a battalion of mostly far-right volunteers after Russian-backed separatists seized parts of the eastern Donbas region in 2014. Kyiv later made it a unit of the National Guard and said it was reformed. Russia says destroying the group is a key war aim.



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