Russian defence ministry said on Friday (April 15) it had taken complete control over Mariupol’s Ilyich steel and iron plant, one of the major remaining outposts of the Ukrainian forces in the city.
The report could not be confirmed.
If Moscow captures Mariupol, it would be the first big city to fall.
Footage taken near the plant by Reuters on Friday showed damages around the plant and numerous dead bodies in the streets nearby.
Ukrainian defenders are mainly believed to be holding out in Azovstal, another huge steel works.
Ukraine’s defence ministry spokesman Oleksandr Motuzyanyk said on Friday that for the first time since the start of its invasion, Russia used long-range bombers to attack the Ukrainian forces in the city.
Mariupol, on the Sea of Azov in southeastern Ukraine, has seen the worst fighting of the seven-week-long war.
Home to 400,000 people before Russia’s invasion, the city has been reduced to rubble. Thousands of civilians have died and tens of thousands remain trapped in the city.
(Reuters)