Denis Pushilin, head of the self-proclaimed breakaway Donetsk People’s Republic, has given an interview to Russia’s RIA Novosti in which he said he cannot confirm that all Ukrainian forces have been expelled from the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol. He said "No, it’s impossible. They could hide physically, they could be lost somewhere. For now, we thoroughly check every nook and cranny of Azovstal, and there the territory is quite serious. I will not say that they are 100% there, or 100% have already been cleared. After our units check everything, clear mines, after they clear all the rubble that is there, after that we can say … there is absolutely no one left."
Meanwhile, Russia on 24th February launched its invasion of Ukraine. And, according to the latest updates, Ukraine’s president and foreign minister have pleaded with the west to send more weapons to their military in the face of Russia’s intensifying assault on the eastern Donbas region. Russian forces have launched fresh assaults on towns in eastern Ukraine, with the city of Sievierodonetsk increasingly in danger of being totally encircled. Also, Ukraine’s foreign ministry said Moscow’s plan to simplify the process of handing Russian citizenship to residents of Ukraine’s Russian-occupied regions violates international law.