Ukraine’s access to Sea of Azov ‘temporarily’ lost as Russian Army 'tightens the noose'

“The occupiers have partially succeeded in the Donetsk operational district, temporarily depriving Ukraine of access to the Sea of Azov,” Ukraine’s defence ministry said in a statement late on Friday.

Ukraine’s defence ministry late on Friday said the Russian army has temporarily denied Ukraine access to the Sea of Azov. The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine made the announcement and said, “Ukraine lost access to the Sea of Azov ‘temporarily’ as Russian forces were tightening their grip around the Sea’s port city of Mariupol.

“Enemies in advancing troops during a ground operation are being offset by rocket bombings using both high-precision weapons and indiscriminate munitions of our State to negotiations on enemy terms,” the General Staff stressed.

“The occupiers have partially succeeded in the Donetsk operational district, temporarily depriving Ukraine of access to the Sea of Azov,” Ukraine’s defence ministry said in a statement late on Friday.

The ministry did not specify in its statement whether Ukraine’s forces have regained access to the Sea.

Russia said on Friday its forces were “tightening the noose” around Mariupol, where an estimated 80% of the city’s homes had been damaged more some 1,000 people may still be trapped in makeshift bomb shelters beneath a destroyed theatre, news agency Reuters reported.

Mariupol, with its strategic location on the coast of the Sea of Azov, has been a target since the start of the war on February 24 when Russian President Vladimir Putin launched what he called a “special military operation”.

The city lies on the route between the Russian-annexed peninsula of Crimea to the west, and the Donetsk region to the east, which is partially controlled by pro-Russian separatists. Russia claimed as early as March 1 that its forces had cut off the Ukrainian military from the Sea of Azov, Reuters reported.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that 130 people had been saved after the bombing of a theatre in the port city of Mariupol under Russian siege, but “hundreds” were still trapped in the rubble.