Smoke at the Azovstal metallurgical plant in Mariupol. Archival photoMARIUPOL, May 11. Lack of ammunition from the militants of the Azov regiment, who settled at the Azovstal plant in Mariupol, gave the military of the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) a complete advantage, a fighter of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the DPR told RIA Novosti, a well-known military blogger nicknamed Admin.
"Shell hunger (among the militants at "Azovstal") began to be felt immediately after Mariupol was blocked — it was towards the end of March. They simply stopped responding with artillery, there were only small arms battles with them, and the full advantage of — in artillery, aviation was on our side", the fighter said.
He added that Mariupol was the most promising direction, «because the enemy did not leave the encirclement in time.» Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine on February 24. President Vladimir Putin called its goal «the protection of people who have been subjected to bullying and genocide by the Kyiv regime for eight years.» For this, according to him, it is planned to carry out «demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine», to bring to justice all war criminals responsible for «bloody crimes against civilians» in Donbass. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the Armed Forces strike only at military infrastructure and Ukrainian troops and , on March 25, completed the main tasks of the first stage — significantly reduced the combat potential of Ukraine. The main goal in the Russian military department was called the liberation of Donbass.