Marieopol, in southeastern Ukraine, has been largely under Russian control for several weeks. Over the weekend, the last captured civilians were evacuated from the city’s Azovstal steel mill. Hundreds of Ukrainian fighters, however, are still said to have holed up in the factory’s bunkers and have no intention of surrendering.
And evacuation of the remaining Ukrainian soldiers at the steel plant is proving difficult, Zelensky said. “The Russian soldiers, the Russian army, the military leadership and the political leadership of the Russian Federation do not want to let our soldiers go,” the president said.