Foreign

Ukraine war: Mariupol civilians evacuated from steelworks bunker

By Web News 531

Dozens of civilians have been evacuated from Mariupol to both Russia-controlled and Ukraine-controlled territory after weeks under siege.

According to report, some have left the Azovstal steelworks, the last holdout of Ukrainian troops in the strategically significant city.

Russia said dozens of civilians have arrived in a village it controls.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said a large group is also on its way to Zaporizhzhia, which Ukraine maintains control of.

“The first group of about 100 people is already heading to the controlled area,” he tweeted. “Tomorrow [Monday} we’ll meet them in Zaporizhzhia. Grateful to our team! Now they, together with UN, are working on the evacuation of other civilians from the plant”.

The United Nations confirmed that a “safe passage operation” had begun to evacuate the citizens on Saturday, and that it was involved alongside the Red Cross.

The evacuation convoy arrived on Saturday morning, the UN said – but did not give details on where people were being taken or how many had left, saying that sharing details could jeopardise the safety of the operation.

Reuters footage from the complex show civilians – mainly women and children – being helped to walk over piles of rubble, and boarding a bus with missing windows.

One woman with a six-month-old baby said they had been trapped in the steelworks for two months. Another, older woman says they were running out of food.

Ukrainian officials said Russian shelling resumed on the steel plant after Sunday’s brief ceasefire.

BBC/Taiwo Akinola

Foreign

Ukraine: ‘Mass Graves’ Found in Mariupol

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A grim discovery has been made in a village some 20km (12 miles) outside the city.

US satellite firm Maxar says it has identified a mass burial site containing about 200 graves in Manhush.

Local Ukrainian officials accuse the Russians of burying Mariupol civilians killed by Russian troops there, but Moscow has not yet responded to the allegations.

The city’s mayor Vadym Boichenko says tens of thousands of civilians may have been killed in Mariupol.

The situation on the ground in Mariupol remains extremely difficult, with no further evacuations of civilians on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered his troops to seal off Ukrainian defenders inside the besieged port city of Mariupol.

Mr Putin told forces to abandon plans to storm the sprawling Azovstal steelworks there, where Ukraine is still resisting the invaders.

The Azovstal Iron and Steel Works – a massive, four sq-mile (10 sq km) plant in the southeast of the city – has become the last centre of Ukrainian resistance in Mariupol. Civilians, as well as fighters, are inside the plant.

Russian forces have been trying for weeks to dislodge them.

The BBC’s Toby Luckhurst in Lviv, western Ukraine, has been reporting on Mr Putin’s apparent change of mind, and Ukrainian defiance.

While Russia talks of isolating the Ukrainian defenders in Azovstal, they remain in contact with the outside world, describing conditions inside the huge steelworks.

Captain Svyatoslav Palamar, deputy commander of the Azov Battalion in the complex, told the BBC military that civilians were hiding in several basements in the complex, some of which he and his comrades were unable to reach.

“We know that there are small children there as young as three-months-old,” he said.

In recent days, Russian forces had used artillery and heavy bunker-busting bombs to try to destroy them, but all the attacks had failed, Capt Palamar said.

He added that more than 500 heavily wounded fighters needed medical help, and the bodies of the dead remained unburied.

BBC

Foreign

Ukraine Intensifies Rescue Efforts in Mariupol

By Web News 647

Fresh efforts are under way to evacuate civilians trapped by Russian forces in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol.

According to Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk, a convoy of 45 Ukrainian buses was on its way to the besieged southern city.

She said the International Committee of the Red Cross had confirmed that Russia had agreed to open a humanitarian corridor to Mariupol.

Tens of thousands of civilians remain there after weeks of bombardment.

Earlier, the Russian defence ministry said the United Nations refugee agency and the Red Cross would assist in the evacuation of civilians.

It said a ceasefire would allow people to travel westwards to Zaporizhzhia via the Russian-controlled port of Berdyansk

Although some residents have escaped, all previous attempts to establish a ceasefire in Mariupol have collapsed amid accusations of bad faith from both sides.

Russia has also been accused of forcibly relocating thousands of civilians to Russia or Russian-controlled areas.

Capturing the city would give Russia control of the Azov Sea coastline between Russia and Crimea.

The announcement of a truce follows a telephone call last Tuesday between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron.

During the conversation, Mr Putin said that shelling of Mariupol would not end until Ukrainian troops surrendered.
Taiwo Akinola/BBC

Foreign

Civilian Evacuations “Extremely Difficult” Amid Shelling – Ukranian Officials

By Web News 523

Ukrainian officials say fresh attempts to evacuate civilians from cities under siege in Ukraine are being complicated by constant Russian shelling.

The evacuation comes as fighting continues around Kyiv.

Reports say one of the towns outside the capital being evacuated, says it is not possible to say that the humanitarian ceasefire is holding because explosions and artillery fire, including from the Ukrainian side, can still be heard.

Although humanitarian corridors are being set up from Mariupol, Sumy, and towns and villages outside the capital Kyiv, regional officials say fighting in the area was continuing and that there was a constant threat of air attacks.

Mariupol Deputy Mayor Serhiy Orlov told the BBC a convoy had left Zaporizhzhya for the city carrying aid and including buses for the evacuations, but it was not clear whether it would get through.

The UN also says the situation in Mariupol is particularly desperate after two weeks of bombardment, with little access to food, water, and power.

BBC