Intense fighting continued around a large steel factory in the southern city of Mariupol, in what appeared to be one of the last redoubts of Ukrainian forces in the besieged city, an adviser to the mayor said on Monday.

Pyotr Andryushchenko, an aide to mayor Vadym Boychenko, said that some 2,000 civilians were trapped along with the soldiers inside the Azovstal steel plant, one of Europe’s largest metal factories.

Andryshchenko insisted that street fighting was continuing throughout Levoberezhny, the district that includes the factory.

The Russian defence ministry said on Sunday that its forces had completely surrounded the steel plant, and that the Ukrainian forces holding out “forbade negotiations about surrendering”, citing an intercepted radio transmission. The ministry repeated a demand that the Ukrainians put down their weapons. “In case of further resistance,” the ministry said, “all of them will be eliminated”.

“In reality it is not surrounded,” Andryushchenko said on Monday. “For the past few days our troops have been engaged in intense street fighting throughout Levoberezhny.”

He said the majority of the fighting was taking place along a main road, called Tahanrozka, that led from the plant to the outskirts of the city.

He described the steel plant as a “fortress”, but would not disclose how many troops were inside.

(New York Times News Service)