“Fierce and bloody combat” continues at the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, as Russian President Vladimir Putin says Ukraine’s remaining fighters should surrender

Moscow has previously pledged a three-day ceasefire to allow civilians to escape the complex, but there are reports Russian soldiers are preventing this from happening.

The port city of Mariupol remains Russia’s key objective as the nation’s annual May 9 Victory Day celebration approaches.

Ticker News spoke with National Security Reporter Jack Detsch who says Russia’s military is cracking under pressure.

Meanwhile, the United Nations and International Committee of the Red Cross have also launched a third operation to resume evacuations.

The UN’s Secretary General says “nearly 500 civilians have found relief after living under relentless shelling”.

In the US, Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby was frank… saying Russia has made “some small progress, particularly in the north part of the Donbas” region of Ukraine.

But, despite these gains, the US still believes the small progress is not the progress Russian forces “expected to make at this point”.

Kirby also says while the US aims to assist Ukraine with battlefield intelligence, the nation does not participate in the targeting decisions which are ultimately made by Ukrainian forces.