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Russian forces are planning to dress up thousands of Ukrainian prisoners of war in military uniforms during next week’s Victory Day parade in Mariupol, a Ukrainian official claimed Thursday. Petro Andryushchenko, an aide to the mayor of the besieged port city, wrote on his Telegram channel that officials have learned that nearly 2,000 Ukrainians are being housed in three filtration camps in the hamlet of Bezimenne, which he likened to “ghettos.” “These men are held there and they are told that they will be made to wear the Ukrainian [military] uniform and to participate in a so-called ‘war prisoners parade’...

Ukrainian sources deny the reports, saying fighters continue to hold out against Russian forces. Video

Russia is planning a military parade in the embattled city of Mariupol, Ukraine's intelligence service said on Wednesday. The parade is set to be held in the south-eastern Ukrainian city on 9 May to coincide with Moscow's Victory Day Parade, which celebrates its victory over Nazi Germany in the Second World War. Mariupol "will become the centre of celebrations", said the Ukrainian Military Intelligence (GUR) in a statement published on Telegram. (snip) Audiences in Russia will also be shown footage of Mariupol rejoicing at having Russian troops in their city, it continued.

According to Western media, now copy-paste reporting the same claims, Russian forces apparently secretly buried *up to 9,000 Mariupol civilians* in "mass graves" in a town just west of the city. Except, it never happened, there is no mass grave. It's actually just a normal, small, cemetery…no pits, no mass graves, just an orderly cemetery whose grave diggers refuted Western claims. On April 23, with journalist Roman Kosarev, I went to Mangush (Manhush in Ukrainian), found a normal cemetery setting, and spoke with the men responsible for burials, who refused the allegations and said they buried each person in a...

Russian forces have failed to make any major gains over the last 24 hours in their offensive in Ukraine as counterattacks by the defenders have hampered their efforts, according to UK intelligence and U.S. analysts.British intelligence said in an April 23 operational update that Ukraine’s airspace and its Black Sea waters remain contested as Russian air and maritime forces have been unable to establish control in either domain “owing to the effectiveness of Ukraine’s air and sea defense.”“Despite increased activity, Russian forces have made no major gains in the last 24 hours as Ukrainian counterattacks continue to hinder their efforts,”...

The poster Simplicius76 has a large number of videos of the war, most from a Russian point-of-view.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday called off an operation to storm the Azovstal steel plant in the city of Mariuol, where over 2,000 Ukrainian militants remain entrenched, according to the Russian military. At a meeting with Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu, the head of state demanded that the plant be blocked so that "even a fly can’t get in or out," and another offer to surrender be made to those holed up at the facility. TASS has put together vital information on decisions made by the commander-in-chief.Russian troops and the forces of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) have taken control...

Russian President Vladimir Putin has canceled plans for his forces to storm the Azovstal plant in the besieged city of Mariupol, saying he instead wants them to continue blockading it. Putin told his defense minister, Sergei Shoigu, it was "inadvisable" to storm the sprawling industrial plant, where more than 2,000 Ukrainian servicemen are said to remain. "We must always think...about preserving the life and health of our soldiers and officers," Putin said, according to a transcript on the Kremlin's website.

The Remaining Ukrainian Forces in Mariupol have groups of soldiers In and around the Azovstal plant using civilian buildings as firing position and in this special report I am with Russian Forces as they engage and Eliminate Ukraine Forces Using an Apartment Building As Firing Position. In this report the Ukrainian firing position inside and apartment building appears to be destroyed by Russian heavy fire including airstrikes, tanks, RPGs, cannon and small arms fire.

“No fewer than 1,000 civilians are hiding in underground shelters beneath the vast Azovstal steel plant in the southeastern Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, the city council said on Monday, … …"Mostly the (civilians) are women with children and old people," the city council wrote on the Telegram messaging app. Street battles have been taking place in Mariupol over the past week as Russian forces seek to take full control of the city from Ukraine.”

Citizens, Lancaster, and what appears to be an Azov fighter, unsuccessfully attempt to save disabled woman from burning building.

Russian general's body recovered almost one month after he was killed Major-General Oleg Mityaev, 47, was killed in an ambush fighting in Mariupol It is claimed that Russia has lost seven generals in the invasion of Ukraine so far First was Chechen Major General Magomed Tushayev, killed on second day The body was recovered after reports that a Ukrainian brigade had surrendered Russia has finally retrieved the body of one of its seven generals slain in Ukraine almost a month after he was killed, reports say. The corpse of a general believed to be Major-General Oleg Mityaev, 47, commander of...

Russian Major General Vladimir Frolov, deputy commander of the 8th Army, was buried Saturday after being killed in combat in Ukraine, Russian state media reported, making him the eighth Russian general believed to have been killed in Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Key Facts A funeral for Frolov was held at a cemetery in St. Petersburg, according to the Russian news agency TASS. St. Petersburg Gov. Alexander Beglov said Frolov fought in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, TASS reported, without elaborating. Some of the generals who were killed were veterans of Russian operations in Georgia and Syria, the Wall Street...

The dawn deadline Russia gave determined Ukrainian soldiers to surrender and lay down their weapons in Mariupol passed without incident on Sunday morning, as Vladimir Putin’s increasingly sloppy troops closed in on the strategic port city.Russia’s defense ministry, still reeling from the loss of 8th Army Major General Vladimir Frolov in combat on Saturday, was just as determined, threatening to “eliminate” any Ukrainian and foreign troops trying to hold on to the battered city.Russia has made considerable gains on the city after spending weeks trying to wipe it off the map. Western intelligence officials said it could fall to Russia...

NEW YORK (AP) – A Russian general whose troops have been besieging the Ukrainian port of Mariupol was buried on Saturday in St Petersburg after dying in battle, the governor said. Major General Vladimir Frolov was deputy commander of the 8th Army, which Russian media identified as being among the forces battering Mariupol for weeks.….

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian fighters who were holed up in a massive steel plant in the last known pocket of resistance inside the shattered city of Mariupol ignored a surrender-or-die ultimatum from Russia on Sunday and held out against the capture of the strategically vital port. The fall of Mariupol, the site of a merciless 7-week-old siege that has reduced much of the city to a smoking ruin, would be Moscow’s biggest victory of the war and free up troops to take part in a potentially climactic battle for control of Ukraine’s industrial east.....

Pavlo Kyrylenko, Ukraine’s governor over Mariupol, has said Friday that the city of Mariupol has been “wiped off the face of the earth” after weeks of relentless shelling and missile strikes from Russian forces. “The enemy may seize the land Mariupol used to stand on, but the city of Mariupol has been wiped off the face of the earth by the Russian Federation, by those who will never be able to restore it,” he said. “To restore Mariupol, that is something only Ukraine can do.”Image: Associated PressAs to the fate of the city, he described that at this point it...

Russia has demanded Ukrainian forces still fighting to defend the besieged city of Mariupol lay down their weapons. The apparent ultimatum comes as Russia continues its relentless and devastating attack on the southeastern city. Russian state media Ria reported that "without exception" all "Ukrainian armed units and foreign mercenaries" must exit from 6:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Moscow time (same as local time) "without any weapons and ammunition," citing the Russian Defense Ministry. An estimated 100,000 people remain in Mariupol and its immediate surroundings, which are reported to be largely under Russian control, with Ukrainian troops confined to pockets of...

Russian investigators will question British mercenary Sean Peter caught in Mariupol, the Russian Investigative Committee told reporters on Saturday. "The investigation will definitely question another mercenary caught in Mariupol," the committee said. Sean Peter is the second Briton captured in Mariupol. He served in the 36th Marine Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces as an assault rifleman and is now in captivity. He now says he wants to go home and advises not to come to Ukraine fight.

WASHINGTON — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday that the country was seeking to break Russia's siege of Mariupol as Russia continued to assault the southern city and threatened to increase its missile strikes on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv. In his nightly address to the nation, Zelenskyy said he met with the country's military leaders to discuss the situation in Mariupol, where fighting raged around the city's Illich Steel and Iron Works plant. "The details cannot be made public now, but we are doing everything we can to save our people," Zelenskyy said. "The successes of our military on...