This brooding footage shows Russian warships firing rockets and artillery in a show of military might in Russia’s Far East.

Newsflash obtained the video from the Ministry of Defence (MoD) of the Russian Federation yesterday (Wednesday, 18th May).

The Russian MoD said (in Russian): “Warships of the Pacific Fleet carried out rocket and artillery firing near Kamchatka.

“The small missile ships ‘Iney’ and ‘Smerch’ as part of the ship’s strike group worked out joint actions to conduct a sea battle with a mock enemy, performing rocket and artillery firing.

“The event was held as part of a planned tactical exercise with the ship strike group of the Pacific Fleet in the sea training ground of Avacha Bay.”

The Pacific Fleet is the Russian Navy fleet in the Pacific Ocean. Its headquarters are located in Fokino, close to Vladivostok.

Avacha Bay is located on the southeastern coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula, located in the Russian Far East.

The update comes after Moscow claimed a strategic victory through the fall of the port city of Mariupol.

Russian authorities said they plan to tear down Azovstal itself and turn Mariupol into a “resort city”, according to the Institute for the Study of War.

The Kremlin also says that more than 900 Ukrainian fighters from the Azovstal metallurgical plant have been taken to a former prison colony in a Russian-controlled part of Donetsk.

Russia’s defence ministry said 771 Ukrainian fighters from the steelworks had surrendered in the last 24 hours, taking the total to 1,730, and 80 of the fighters were wounded.

But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called Russia’s invasion of Ukraine an “absolute failure” and said Russian leaders were afraid to acknowledge “that catastrophic mistakes were made at the highest military and state level”. Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman at the same time said at least 231 children have died and 427 were injured since February 24.

Zelenskyy also said that said Ukraine is determined to reclaim control over the southern cities of Kherson, Melitopol, Berdiansk, Enerhodar and Mariupol, now occupied by Russian troops.

Elsewhere, G7 partners are set to meet in Germany later today (Thursday, May 19) to find a way to fix Ukraine’s devastated finances.

On the ground, Ukrainian forces have retaken villages around the north-eastern city of Kharkiv, but Russian forces have advanced slowly in the east of the country.

The Ukrainian Armed Forces claim to have killed about 28,500 Russian soldiers since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began on February 24.

They also say that between February 24 and May 19, the enemy lost 1,254 tanks, 3,063 armored fighting vehicles, 595 artillery systems, 199 multiple launch rocket systems, 93 anti-aircraft warfare systems, 203 aircraft, 167 helicopters, 2,157 motor vehicles and fuel tankers, 13 ships/boats, 455 unmanned aerial vehicles, 43 pieces of special units and 103 cruise missiles.