The deaths come after more than six months of fighting as Ukraine continues to defend against the invasion launched by Russian President Vladimir Putin on February 24. Putin claimed the invasion was to “liberate” the separatist region of Donbass from Ukrainian control. The invasion was met with global condemnation due to skepticism about justification, concerns about Ukraine’s sovereignty and reports of human rights abuses by Russian soldiers. Despite the fact that Moscow has one of the world’s largest armies, it has largely failed to achieve its major goals in Ukraine, which has offered a vigorous defense. Ukraine continues to fight back against Putin’s military, including places Russia successfully captured earlier in the war, such as Kherson, where Ukraine launched a counterattack on Monday – and Mariupol. At about 2 a.m. Monday, a group of Russian troops on patrol in Mariupol received reports that “Azov” fighters were hiding inside a house on the outskirts of the city, the Mariupol mayor’s office wrote in a Telegram post. Above, soldiers of the Azov Regiment are seen in the Kharkiv region of Ukraine on June 23. Pro-Ukrainian partisans used a false report of Azov soldiers in Mariupol to lure Russian soldiers to a house, where they planted their own mines early Monday morning. said the Ukrainian official. Paula Bronstein/Getty Images Mariupol, a city in southeastern Ukraine, saw weeks of intense fighting throughout the war as both countries fought for control of the port city that is also home to the Azovstal steel plant. The Azov Regiment, which fought to keep the city in Ukrainian hands, has been designated a terrorist organization by the Kremlin—making the soldiers staying in Mariupol a target for Russian forces. However, the reports that Russian troops responded to were not legitimate and were created by a pro-Ukrainian group, although it was unclear who exactly created the message, according to the Telegram post. “The result is a conqueror minus a leg and a hospital in Donetsk. A conqueror sings with Kombzon,” the Telegram post reads. “The most poignant detail is that the occupiers detonated their own mines, which the people in that area and the spies are unaware of. They were ignored, but we took advantage.” The defeat of Russian troops is a rare victory for Ukrainian forces in Mariupol, which have suffered heavy casualties in recent months. Eventually, the Kremlin successfully besieged the city, much of which was either destroyed or severely damaged during the fighting. Among the issues city leaders will have to continue to deal with for the foreseeable future is a cholera outbreak caused by mass burials. Cholera is a potentially fatal bacterial disease. Newsweek has reached out to the Russian Defense Ministry for comment.
