Civilians remain trapped in steel mills under Russian siege, but humanitarian corridors are expected to run through the city until Sunday.
Ukraine has claimed that up to 50 civilians have been evacuated from the bombed-out Azovstal steel plant in the city of Mariupol on Friday. Thus, he has accused Russia of violate a truce intended to allow the departure of dozens more who are still trapped under the plant after weeks of siege.
Mariupol has suffered the most destructive bombardment of the 10 weeks of warand the sprawling Soviet-era plant Azovstal is the last part of the city – a strategic southern port on the Sea of Azov – to still in the hands of Ukrainian fighters.
President Volodymyr Zelensky stated in a late-night video address that Ukraine was working on a diplomatic effort to save the defenders entrenched in the steel mill. “Influential intermediaries, influential states are involved,” he said, but did not elaborate.
last weekend evacuations beganwith the mediation of the UN, of some of the hundreds of civilians who had taken refuge in a network of tunnels and bunkers under the plant. However, during the week they were interrupted by the resumption of fighting.
The escape
This Friday afternoon 50 women, children and elderly were evacuated from the plant, reported Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk, who added that the operation would continue this Saturday. The Russian side constantly violated the local ceasefire, he said, so the evacuation was very slow.
Russia has also confirmed the number of evacuees and said: “The humanitarian operation in Azovstal will continue on May 7″.
The city’s mayor estimated earlier this week that 200 people were trapped at the plant with little food and water. But it is not clear how many remain.
Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych has stated that Russia was trying to wipe out the forces inside the plant to seize it before Monday as a gift to President Vladimir Putin, in time for Moscow commemorations of the former Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.
global hunger
The port, which sits between the Crimean peninsula seized by Moscow in 2014 and parts of eastern Ukraine seized by Russian-backed separatists the same year, is key to linking the two Russian-held territories and blocking Ukrainian exports.
Almost 25 million tons of grain, necessary to prevent prices from skyrocketing and causing hunger around the world, were stuck in Ukraine, explained Josef Schmidhuber, Deputy Director of the Trade and Markets Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in Geneva. He has also described the situation as “almost grotesque”.
The Ukrainian General Staff has stated thate Russian forces were still trying to take over the rest of eastern Ukraine, where the Russian Defense Ministry said it had destroyed an ammunition depot in Kramatorsk and shot down two Ukrainian warplanes.
But Arestovych has stated in a video briefing that the Ukrainian forces had made some progress near Kharkiv and Kherson and had inflicted “significant losses” on the Russians, while taking losses of their own.
But it has not been possible to independently verify the statements of either side about the events on the battlefield.
‘Special military operation’
Moscow rates its actions as “special military operation“to disarm Ukraine and rid it of anti-Russian nationalism fostered by the West. Ukraine and the West can confirm that Russia launched an unprovoked war. More than 5 million Ukrainians have fled abroad since the beginning of the invasion.
In Mariupol, the Ukrainian General Staff stated this Friday morning that Russia had resumed its efforts to invade the Azovstal plant, even with air support.
A member of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic forces fighting alongside the Russian army in eastern Ukraine told Reuters he believed Ukrainian forces had little strength left to defend Azovstal.
“They won’t last long“, said the fighter who gave his name as Alexei, speaking on Thursday near the plant.
Putin declared victory at Mariupol on April 21, ordering the plant closed and calling on Ukrainian forces inside to disarm.
Asked about Russia’s plans to mark the anniversary day of World War II in the parts of Ukraine it owns, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “The time will come to mark Victory Day in Mariupol“.
Ukraine and its Western allies say that after failing to take the capital, Russian forces have made slow progress in their revised goal of capturing the country’s east and south, but may also plan to engage Ukraine’s western neighbor Moldova. .
unit sample
US President Joe Biden and other Western leaders they plan to hold a video call with Zelensky on Sunday, according to the White House, in a show of unity.
Biden has announced a security aid package for Ukraine which will provide more artillery ammunition, radars and other equipment. A US official separately said its value was $150 million (142.2 million euros).
The italian governmentfor its part, has ordered the seizure of a yacht valued at about 700 million dollars (663.6 million euros) that has been linked in the media to Putin. The elegant six-deck Scheherazade has been undergoing repairs in the Italian port of Marina di Carrara since September.
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