Ukraine’s Donbas region, claiming victory in the months-longbattle for Mariupol’s steel plant and launching a majoroffensive on the remaining Ukrainian-held territory in theprovince of Luhansk.

The last Ukrainian forces holed up in Mariupol’s smashedAzovstal steelworks surrendered on Friday, Russia’s defenseministry said. That ended the most destructive siege of the war.

“The territory of the Azovstal metallurgical plant … hasbeen completely liberated,” the ministry said in a statement,adding that 2,439 defenders had surrendered in the past fewdays, including 531 in the final group.

Hours earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy saidthe last defenders at the steelworks had been told by Ukraine’smilitary that they could get out and save their lives. TheUkrainians did not immediately confirm the figures on Azovstal.

Russia also launched what appeared to be a major assault toseize the last remaining Ukrainian-held territory in theprovince of Luhansk, one of two southeastern Ukrainian provincesMoscow proclaims as independent states.

“The Russian army has started very intensive destruction ofthe town of Sievierodonetsk, the intensity of shelling doubled,they are shelling residential quarters, destroying house byhouse,” Luhansk governor Serhiy Gaidai said on his Telegramchannel.

In early hours on Saturday, air raid sirens were going offin much of Ukraine, including in the Kyiv capital region and thesouthern port of Odesa.

Capturing Luhansk and Donetsk provinces, much of which make up Ukraine’s industrial Donbas region, would allow Moscow to claim a victory after announcing last month that this was now its objective.

Despite losing ground elsewhere in recent weeks, Russianforces have advanced on the Luhansk front.

“This will be the critical next few weeks of the conflict,”said Mathieu Boulegue, an expert at London’s Chatham House thinktank. “And it depends on how effective they are at conqueringSievierodonetsk and the lands across it.”

Ukraine’s general staff said it had pushed back an offensiveon Sievierodonetsk, part of what it described as major Russianoperations along a stretch of the front line.

In Moscow, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said the“liberation of the Luhansk People’s Republic” would be oversoon.

BATTLE FOR MARIUPOL

The end of the Mariupol siege was an important symbolicmoment for Russia, after a series of setbacks since the invasion began on Feb. 24, but it came at the cost of massivedestruction.

Zelenskiy said the region had been “completely destroyed” byRussia and proposed a formal deal with the country’s allies tosecure Russian compensation for the damage its forces hadcaused.

Natalia Zarytska, wife of an Azovstal fighter whosurrendered, said she had not heard from him since a Telegram message exchange two days ago. She believed he was still alive.

“The situation is really hard and horrible and my husband ison the way from one hell to another hell, from Azovstal steelplant to a prison, to captivity,” Zarytska said in Istanbul,where she and other relatives lobbied Turkey to help save thefighters.

The Red Cross said it had registered hundreds of Ukrainianswho surrendered at the plant as prisoners of war and Kyiv says it wants a prisoner swap. Moscow says the prisoners will be treated humanely, but Russian politicians have been quoted as saying some must be tried or even executed.

Russian forces in Ukraine have been driven in recent weeksfrom the area surrounding Ukraine’s second-largest city,Kharkiv, their fastest retreat since being forced out of thenorth and the Kyiv region at the end of March.

But they still control a large swathe of the south and east,and the end of fighting in Mariupol means that that territory isnow largely unbroken.

In a sign of Russia’s aim to boost its war effort, theparliament in Moscow said it would consider letting Russiansover 40 and foreigners over 30 join the military.

The past week has also seen Sweden and Finland apply to joinNATO, although Turkey has threatened to block them, accusing the

Nordic countries of harbouring Kurdish militants.

After weeks of threatening to retaliate, Putin said thisweek Finnish or Swedish NATO membership did not represent a threat unless the alliance sent new weapons or troops.Nevertheless, Shoigu said on Friday Moscow planned to beef up its forces nearby in response to what he called new threats.