Ukrainian NSDC reports National Guard offensive near Mariupol

Units of the Ukrainian National Guard broke through the militants' defensive lines and have launched an offensive toward the city of Mariupol, Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) said in a press release on Tuesday.

NSDC Secretary Oleksandr Turchynov arrived in the army operation area on Tuesday, it said.

"Turchynov is currently near Mariupol, where National Guard units broke through enemy defensive lines and launched an offensive," it said.

According to the press release, the NSDC secretary came to the east of Ukraine in order to coordinate the activities of the army and other forces involved in the operation there.

Ukraine's Azov battalion reported that the Ukrainian army was launching a "full-scale offensive" near Mariupol.

"The first checkpoint in the direction of Sakhanka has been taken. The enemy is retreating," the battalion said on its Twitter account on Tuesday morning.

Azov said on its Facebook page later that "Pavlopil [located to the northeast of Mariupol] has been liberated" and the battalion's soldiers were preparing to storm the locality of Oktyabr. The Azov regiment also announced on its VKontakte page that on Tuesday morning its servicemen launched an offensive toward the city of Novoazovsk in the Donetsk region.

"The locality of Shyrokyne was under our control as of 8:00 a.m. Intense fighting is under way along the entire frontline," it said.