Ukraine War: Thousands are killed and over 13 million people are forced to flee their homes.
Mariupol:
At least 20 civilians, including several children, were able to leave a badly battered steel plant in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol on Saturday, in what could be the start of a major evacuation of the final holdout in the long-awaited, Russian-held city of Mariupol. Faridabad.
Ukrainian fighters from the Azov Regiment, which is guarding the site, said 20 civilians had left for the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhya, possibly about 225 kilometers (140 mi) to the northwest.
Russia’s Tass news agency also published a similar report, although the number of people evacuated was put at 25.
A UN-planned evacuation was in the works, although it was unclear whether Saturday’s evacuation was UN-led and whether further evacuations were imminent. There were no immediate details on the status of the evacuation.
But the fact that the evacuation took place at all was significant. Conditions in a vast network of tunnels under the Azovstal Steel Plant – where hundreds of civilians are believed to still be taking refuge, as well as Ukrainian fighters – have been called brutal, and earlier attempts at evacuation were in vain.
The apparent ceasefire at Mariupol came as Russian attacks continued unabated across Ukraine, most fiercely in disputed eastern regions, but with attacks as far west as Odessa on the Black Sea coast.
Odessa regional governor Maxim Marchenko said a Russian missile attack destroyed the airport’s runway, as Russia continues to target infrastructure and supply lines in the country’s west.
No one was hurt by the airport strike near the historic city of one million people.
Near Buka, Kyiv, which has been synonymous with Russian war crimes charges, Ukrainian police on Saturday reported three bodies with their hands tied to their heads.
Police said in a statement that three bodies found in a pit were “brutally killed” by Russian soldiers – each shot in the head.
“The victims’ hands were tied, their eyes were covered with cloth and some were strangled. There are torture marks on the corpses,” it said.
The Russian military also continued its relentless shelling in the east of the country on Saturday, killing at least one person and injuring 12 others.
clearing out debris
In Mariupol, the Azov regiment said on Saturday it was clearing debris of an overnight shelling by Russia to rescue stranded civilians.
From the badly damaged port area of Mariupol, AFP heard heavy shelling from Azovstal during a media visit organized by the Russian military on Friday, with explosions only seconds apart.
“Twenty civilians, women and children … have been transferred to a suitable location and we hope that they will be taken to Zaporizhzhya in the territory controlled by Ukraine,” said Syatoslav Palmar, deputy commander of the Azov regiment.
But Denis Pushilin, the leader of the breakaway Eastern Region of Donetsk, accused Ukrainian forces of “acting like outright terrorists” and taking civilians hostage at the steel plant.
On the front lines in the east, Russian troops have advanced slowly but steadily in some areas – helped by the massive use of artillery – but Ukrainian forces have recaptured some areas in recent days, particularly Around Kharkiv city.
One of the areas taken back from Russian control was the village of Ruska Lozova, which the evacuees said had been occupied for two months.
“It was two months of terrible fear. Nothing more, a terrifying and constant fear,” Natalia, a 28-year-old evacuee from Ruska Lozova, told AFP after arriving in Kharkiv.
“We were in the cellar without food for two months, we ate what we had,” said 40-year-old Svyatoslav, who did not want to give his full name, his eyes red from fatigue.
Putin’s ‘delusions’
Thousands have been killed and more than 13 million people forced to flee their homes since the start of the Russian offensive on its pro-Western neighbor on February 24, according to the United Nations.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby on Friday described the devastation in Ukraine as suffocating with emotion and accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of “corruption”.
Ukraine’s prosecutors say they have unearthed more than 8,000 war crimes committed by Russian soldiers and are investigating 10 Russian soldiers for suspected atrocities in Bucha.
Russia has denied any involvement in the civilian deaths in Bucha.
But Russian officials confirmed on Friday that their forces had launched an airstrike on Kyiv a day before UN chief Antonio Guterres’ visit, the first such attack on the capital in nearly two weeks. One journalist was killed in the attack.
– Prisoner swap –
Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshchuk meanwhile reported that 14 Ukrainians, including a pregnant soldier, had been freed in the latest prisoner exchange with the Russian military.
He did not say how many Russians had been returned.
Kyiv has acknowledged that Russian forces have captured several villages in the Donbass region.
“Even if there has been some advance by Russian troops on the ground, it is not very rapid,” Russian military expert Alexander Khramchikhin told AFP.
But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said “the special military operation … is proceeding strictly according to plan”, China’s official Xinhua news agency reported.
More Western weapons are about to arrive in Ukraine, US President Joe Biden asked Congress for billions of dollars on Thursday to boost supplies.
French President Emmanuel Macron said on Saturday that his country would also “intensify” military and humanitarian aid.
Russia’s defense ministry has said in recent days that its forces have attacked Ukrainian military sites hosting Western-supplied arms and ammunition, a claim a senior NATO official has denied.
Russia has warned against sending more military aid to Western countries.
“If the US and NATO are really interested in solving the Ukraine crisis, then first of all, they should wake up and stop the supply of arms and ammunition to the Kyiv regime,” Lavrov said.
And with Sweden considering a bid for NATO membership, defense officials there said Saturday that a Russian reconnaissance plane had briefly violated the northern country’s airspace the day before.
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)