Russian forces assault the Mariupol steel plant, trying to snuff out the last pocket of resistance. Russian forces mount…

Russian forces assault the Mariupol steel plant, trying to snuff out the last pocket of resistance.

Russian forces mounted a furious assault on the Azovstal steel factory on Thursday after breaching Ukrainian perimeter defenses, seeking to destroy the last pocket of resistance in the ruined city of Mariupol and allow Moscow to claim a victory ahead of a symbolically important Russian holiday.

“It has been two days since the enemy broke into the territory of the plant,” Lt. Col. Denys Prokopenko, a Ukrainian commander, said in a video posted overnight. “Heavy, bloody battles are raging.”

A few hours later, Petro Andriushchenko, an adviser to the city government, said that there had been nonstop shelling overnight and into the morning. The last patch of Ukrainian resistance beneath the hulking remains of what had once been one of Europe’s largest steel plants has been “turned into hell,” he said. Read more

@nytimes