Part of the Russian troops retreated from the blocked Mariupol and is moving in a north-western direction – to the Zaporozhye region.

This was announced at a briefing on Thursday, April 28, by a senior official of the US Department of Defense.

He did not specify how many Russian troops he was talking about, but said it was “significant.” In total, according to the Pentagon, there are 92 Russian battalion tactical groups in Ukraine. In the Donbas, the Russian military advances slowly and unevenly due to unresolved logistics and supply issues.

The retreat of part of the Russian troops from the Mariupol region, according to a US Defense Ministry official, does not mean that the city is already considered occupied, since shelling continues.

“This does not mean that Mariupol is under their [Russian] control – they continue to carry out both air and missile strikes on the city. They would not do this if they thought they controlled the city,” he stressed.

The Pentagon also estimates that Russia has used about 1,900 rockets since the start of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Most of the rocket attacks were on Mariupol and in general on the territory of the Joint Forces Operation in Donbass.

Recall that on the night of April 28, the Russian military launched 50 airstrikes on Mariupol . The invaders dropped phosphorus bombs prohibited by the Geneva Convention on the city. In addition, rockets were used and artillery fired.

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