Following weeks of laying siege to the Azovstal steelworks in the southern Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, Russian troops stormed the complex on Tuesday, according to Ukrainian sources citing its fighters at the plant.
"All night they bombed us from the air (...) and now Azovstal is being stormed," the deputy commander of the Ukrainian Azov Battalion Svyatoslav Palamar said, according to the Ukrayinska Pravda newspaper. Two civilians have reportedly been killed in Russian onslaught.
Russia did not confirm the deaths, but the Defence Ministry in Moscow did say that the Azov Battalion fighters at the site had used an earlier ceasefire to return to their offensive positions and were now under aerial and artillery attack, according to Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.
Reports of the attacks came as more than 100 evacuees from the steelworks managed to reach the Ukrainian-controlled city of Zaporizhzhia. The International Committee of the Red Cross, whose staff accompanied the refugees alongside representatives of the United Nations, said that some of the evacuees were injured, however.
Other civilians had left the plant on their own and were heading to various destinations, the Red Cross said.
"We'll continue to engage parties to the conflict & do all we can to support safe passage for civilians trapped in war-impacted areas," the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs tweeted.
However, despite the evacuations, some 200 civilians are believed to remain inside the sprawling industrial complex alongside and unknown number of Ukrainian fighters.
Mariupol, a Ukrainian port of key strategic importance, has been all but destroyed and is now largely in the hands of Russian troops. Only some 100,000 of its once 440,000 inhabitants still remain in the city, according to reports, and are said to be enduring catastrophic conditions,
The city's last defenders entrenched themselves in the Azovstal plant, along with civilians, refusing to surrender despite repeated Russian demands.
It remains unclear exactly how many people are in the plant's bunkers, which were built for a nuclear war.
Recently, Ukrainian officials claimed 1,000 civilians, including women and children, were still in the zone, while Russia claimed 2,500 Ukrainian fighters and foreign mercenaries were holed up there.
Fears are now growing that Russia may be preparing to declare a state of war and mobilize troops and reservists, according to Ukrainian military intelligence, local media reports and US broadcaster CNN.
This would be a significant change as Moscow has so far claimed that the war in Ukraine is merely a "special operation."
Observers are now waiting to see what Russian President Vladimir Putin says at celebrations on May 9, when Russia marks the victory over Nazi Germany.
Many are predicting a broader Russian offensive as, so far, Russian troops are only making limited progress in eastern and southern Ukraine.
Nonetheless, the war has caused widespread destruction and extensive displacement. Moscow has also reportedly transferred almost 1.1 million people to Russia from war-torn areas of Ukraine since the invasion began.
They include 200,000 children, Russian military chief Mikhail Mizintsev said, according to the Interfax news agency. On Monday alone, 11,500 people, including 1,850 children, were transported to Russia from Ukraine, he said.
Russia frames this as an evacuation operation aimed at saving civilians from the fighting on the ground and alleged violence from the Ukrainian military.
Ukraine, on the other hand, sees it as the forced deportation of its citizens from Russian-occupied territories in the east and south.
Ukraine's National Security and Defence Council has accused Russia of abducting Ukrainian children and using them for propaganda purposes.
Moscow transported what it said were refugees from the Donetsk and Luhansk separatist regions in eastern Ukraine even before the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24.
