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Mariupol steelworks: Video appears to show children in Azovstal bunker

Ns News Online Desk:Ns News Online Desk: Ukraine’s Azov regiment has posted a video showing women and children purportedly sheltering underground at the Azovstal plant – the last part of Mariupol not under Russian control.

Women and children in a crowded room can be heard saying they are running out of food and water, and pleading to be evacuated from the southern city.

Some say they have seen no daylight for weeks, having been there from February.

The BBC has not verified the video, believed to be filmed on 21 April.

On the same day, President Vladimir Putin called off a planned Russian assault on the steelworks, and ordered his troops to seal it off instead.

Moscow also declared itself to be in full control of the strategic city – a claim denied by Ukraine, who says Russian troops were simply unable to seize the Azovstal steelworks.

The plant – a maze of tunnels and workshops – is a huge industrial site in central Mariupol. Taking the Sea of Azov port – which has been almost erased by weeks of heavy Russian bombardment – is a key Kremlin war aim, and would release more troops to join an ongoing Russian offensive in the eastern Donbas region.

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