Fighting intensifies at Mariupol steel plant

Russian forces continued to target the Azovstal plant Thursday with aircraft, heavy artillery, and “bombs that pierce concrete 3 to 5 meters thick,” said Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko. Ukrainian fighters said Russian forces began storming the already destroyed plant Tuesday. A few hundred civilians and about 500 wounded Ukrainian soldiers remain in the plant, according to local authorities.

Has the fighting intensified elsewhere? Authorities said at least five people died while 25 others sustained injuries in shelling across several eastern cities over the past 24 hours. Russia’s military said its sea- and air-launched missiles destroyed electric power facilities at five Ukrainian railway stations Wednesday. Meanwhile, an Associated Press report found the March 16 bombing of the Donetsk Theater in Mariupol killed about 600 people, nearly double the previously cited death toll.

Dig deeper: Read Mark LiVecche’s column in WORLD Opinions about Russian atrocities committed during the war.