Dozens of civilians including the elderly and children were last night feared trapped in rubble following more intense bombing in the besieged city of Mariupol.
Images of the stricken steelworks that has held out against the Russian advance emerged as Ukraine was pummelled on the 61st day of war.
Moscow claimed it had struck 90 military targets across the country yesterday, killing at least 500 soldiers.
Attacks were also reported in Zaporizhzhia, a south-eastern city to which Mariupol residents had been told to flee, as well as in the eastern region of Donetsk.
Smoke rises above a plant of Azovstal Iron and Steel Works. Dozens of civilians including the elderly and children were last night feared trapped in rubble following more intense bombing in the besieged city of Mariupol
Civilians gather on Orthodox Easter Sunday at the Azovstal steel plant where Ukrainian soldiers are holding out and civilians sheltering
An elderly woman trembling with fear is crudely bandaged as she is tended to by soldiers in the sorawling Azovstal steel works
Last week, Vladimir Putin declared victory over Mariupol and appeared to call off the assault of the steelworks, all but condemning resistance fighters to starvation by instructing troops to block the site so ‘even a fly cannot get through’
At least three cities were also targeted in the Luhansk area.
Plumes of black smoke filled the air in Mariupol after 35 airstrikes in just 24 hours.
Many are now feared trapped in the labyrinthine underground tunnels which have acted as makeshift bunkers.
Distressing footage released yesterday by the Azov Battalion, an elite unit which has vowed to fight ‘until the last bullet’, showed a crudely bandaged elderly woman trembling with fear as she was tended to by soldiers.
In a statement released online, the soldiers said: ‘The Azovstal plant, which houses the defenders of Mariupol, continues to be struck by enemy fire.
'In the past 24
