UN humanitarian spokesman Saviano Abreu told the Associated Press that the operation to evacuate people from the vast Azovstal steel plant was carried out with the International Committee of the Red Cross and in coordination with Ukrainian and Russian officials. As many as 100,000 people are believed to be still in the besieged Mariupol, including up to 1,000 civilians who were chased by about 2,000 Ukrainian fighters under the Soviet-era steel plant – the only part of the city not occupied by the Russians. Like other evacuations, the success of the mission in Mariupol depended on Russia and its forces, which deployed along a large number of checkpoints before reaching the Ukrainians. Zaporizhzhia, a town about 141 miles (227 kilometers) northwest of Mariupol, was the destination of the evacuation effort, Abreu said. He said women, children and the elderly – who have been excluded for almost two months – will be transported to the city, where they will receive immediate humanitarian assistance, including psychological services. Mariupol has seen some of the worst suffering of the war. A maternity hospital was hit by a deadly Russian airstrike in the first weeks of the war, and hundreds were killed when a civilian theater shelter was bombed. “As operations are still ongoing, we will not provide further details at this point to ensure the safety of civilians and escorts in the escort,” Abreu said of the evacuation. “The UN will also continue to push for the safe passage of the city of Mariupol for all those citizens who wish to leave,” he said. The UN said the civilian evacuation convoy began on Friday, traveling about 140 miles (230 kilometers) before arriving at the Mariupol plant on Saturday morning. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy tweeted Sunday afternoon that the first group of about 100 people had headed to Ukrainian-controlled territories. “Tomorrow we will meet them in Zaporizhzhia. Thanks to our team! “Now, together with the #UN, they are working to remove other civilians from the factory,” he wrote on Twitter. A team of Médecins Sans Frontières was in a reception center for displaced persons in Zaporizhia on Sunday, in preparation for the arrival of a UN escort, if successful. Stress, exhaustion and low food supplies have probably weakened the health of people trapped underground in the steel plant. People fleeing the Russian-occupied territories have described their vehicles as being shot at, and Ukrainian officials have repeatedly accused Russian forces of bombing evacuation routes agreed upon by both sides. Russia’s high-risk attack on coastal southern Ukraine and the eastern industrial heart of the country has Ukrainian forces fighting villages on the outskirts and more civilians fleeing airstrikes and artillery bombardment. Pelosi, a Republican from California who is the second in line to succeed the president, is the highest-ranking US lawmaker to travel to Ukraine since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24. Her visit on Saturday came just days after Russian rockets were fired at the capital during a visit by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. During a press conference Sunday in the Polish city of Rzeszow, Pelosi said she and other members of a US congressional delegation met with Zelensky in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, for three hours and brought him “a message of appreciation from the American people.” for his leadership. . » MP Jason Crowe, a U.S. Army veteran and member of the House Intelligence and Intelligence Services Committees, said he came to Ukraine with three areas of focus: “Guns, Guns and Weapons.” “We have to make sure that the Ukrainians have what they need to win. “What we have seen in the last two months is their savagery, their intense pride, their ability to fight and their ability to win if they have the support to do so,” said the Colorado Democrat. Russian forces have launched a major military operation to occupy key parts of southern and eastern Ukraine after failing to occupy the capital, Kyiv. Mariupol, a port city in the Sea of Azov, is a key target due to its strategic location near the Crimean peninsula, which Russia occupied from Ukraine in 2014. “All the leaders of the free world know what Russia has done in Mariupol. “Russia will not go unpunished for that,” Zelensky said in a video overnight. He warned that Russia was “gathering additional forces for new attacks against our army in the east of the country.” Limited evacuations from the city took place on Saturday, but details were unclear due to the number of parties involved in the negotiations and the unstable situation on the ground. The Russian Defense Ministry said a total of 46 people had been evacuated from areas near the Azovstal plant. On Saturday, Deputy Commander of the Ukrainian Regiment Sviatoslav Palamar called for the evacuation of wounded Ukrainian fighters as well as civilians. “We do not know why they are not leaving and their evacuation is not being discussed in the Ukrainian-controlled territory,” he said in a video posted on the constitution’s Telegram channel. Unafraid of air raid sirens and warnings of home shelter, people in Zaporizhia visited cemeteries on Sunday as Ukrainians celebrate Orthodox Christian Day of the Dead. “If our dead could get up and see this, they would say, ‘It is not possible, they are worse than the Germans,’” said Hennadiy Bondarenko, 61, as he marked the day with his family at a picnic table in between. in the tombs. “All our dead would take part in the battles, including the Cossacks.” It was difficult to get a full picture of the unfolding battle in eastern Ukraine, as airstrikes and artillery barricades have made the circulation of journalists extremely dangerous. Both Ukraine and Moscow-backed rebels have also imposed severe restrictions on reports from the battle zone. However, Western military analysts have suggested that the attack in the Donbas area, which includes Mariupol, was proceeding much more slowly than planned. So far, Russian troops and separatists appear to have made only small gains in the month since Moscow said it would focus its military power on the east. Videos and images from inside the Mariupol steel plant, leaked to the AP by two Ukrainians who said their husbands were among the fighters refusing to surrender there, show unknown men with stained bandages. others had open wounds or amputated limbs. The medical staff of the skeleton treated at least 600 wounded, the women said, who recognized their husbands as members of the Azov National Guard Regiment of Ukraine. Some of the wounds were rotting with gangrene, they said. The AP could not independently verify the date and location of the video, which the women said was taken last week in the maze of corridors and warehouses under the factory. Meanwhile, a fire broke out Sunday at a Russian Defense Ministry facility in the southern Belgorod region, about 30 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, the Belgorod governor said. In a Telegram post, Vyacheslav Gladkov said that emergency workers were working at the scene, where he said one resident was slightly injured and seven apartment buildings were “damaged to varying degrees”. The Ministry of Defense did not immediately comment on the incident. Separately, the governor of Russia’s Kursk region, which also borders Ukraine, told the Telegram on Sunday that a railway bridge on a freight line used by freight trains had been destroyed in an “act of sabotage”. Roman Starovoyt did not identify the alleged perpetrators, but said a criminal investigation had been launched into the case. Hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid have flowed into Ukraine since the start of the war, but Russia’s huge arsenal means Ukraine will continue to demand huge amounts of support. In the days before the start of the war, Western intelligence estimated that Russia had deployed up to 190,000 troops near the border. Ukraine’s permanent army totals about 200,000, spread across the country. With ample firepower still in reserve, Russia’s attack could still intensify and overwhelm the Ukrainians. In total, the Russian army has about 900,000 active-duty personnel. Russia also has a much larger air force and navy.
Fisch reported from Sloviansk. Associated Press reporters Jon Gambrell and Yuras Karmanau in Lviv, Mstyslav Chernov in Kharkiv, Lolita C. Baldor in Washington, Trisha Thompson in Rome and AP staff around the world contributed to this report.
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