Intense fighting continued Thursday (May 5) at the shattered steel plant in Mariupol as Russian forces aim to finish off the city’s final layer of resistance and complete the capture of the strategically vital Ukrainian port.

This footage was provided by Ukrainian military pool showing the underfire steelworks facility.

The conflict came among growing speculation that President Vladimir Putin wants to present the Russian people with a glorious military moment just in time for Victory Day on Monday, the most patriotic holiday on the Russian calendar, marking the Soviet Union’s triumph over Nazi Germany.

Some 2,000 Ukrainian fighters, by Russia’s most recent estimate, were holed up in the tunnels and bunkers under the sprawling Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol, the last pocket of resistance in a city largely reduced to rubble over the past two months. A few hundred civilians were also believed trapped there, according to reports.

Ukrainian defenders under heavy fire hold the defense of the plant.

The assault on the Azovstal plant in Mariupol continues.

This is reported by the Ukrainian regiment "Azov", publishing a new video of the assault


"Defenders under heavy fire hold the defense of the plant. The enemy uses aircraft, artillery and infantry," the caption to the video says.


Defenders under heavy fire hold the defense of the plant
Also, the head of the patrol police department in Mariupol, Mikhail Vershinin, reports that there are fights along the perimeter of Azovstal:

"The situation is very difficult, there are battles around the perimeter of the plant. We could not give much information, we were waiting for a ceasefire regime for the removal of the wounded and civilians. They did not give us a regime today, although they promised. The situation is tough and very difficult."