Citizens “beg to be saved” from a steel mill that has become the last stronghold of Mariupol, Mayor Vadim Boichenko said on Friday. “There, it is not a matter of days, it is a matter of hours.” It is estimated that 2,000 fighters were hiding in the factory with about 1,000 civilians.
Russian state media reported on Saturday that 25 people had been evacuated from the Azovstal steel plant, although there was no confirmation from Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency that 19 adults and six children had been evacuated, but gave no further details.
A senior official of the Azov Regiment, the Ukrainian unit defending the plant, said 20 civilians had been evacuated during the ceasefire, although it was unclear if he was referring to the same group as reported by Russian news.
After two months of infernal resistance, videos showed border guards singing Ukraine’s national anthem, locked inside the mill, according to CBS News foreign correspondent Chris Livsey. Supported by the love of their husbands, now refugees in Rome, like Yulya, who has no hope in Russia’s promises of a safe evacuation.
“They are very bad people,” he said. “They lied and had no confidence in Russia.”
Videos and images from inside the plant, which were reported to the Associated Press, showed unknown men with stained bandages. others had open wounds or amputated limbs.
Local media reported that some of the soldiers trapped inside the factory were suffering from gangrene.
Two Ukrainians whose husbands are members of Ukraine’s Azov National Guard regiment have said they fear soldiers will be tortured and killed if left behind and captured by the Russians. They called for a Dunkirk-type mission to evacuate the fighters, a reference to the World War II operation launched to rescue the besieged Allied troops in northern France.
“We can do this mining operation … that will save our soldiers, our citizens, our children,” Katerina Prokopenko, 27, told the AP. “We have to do this now, because people – every hour, every second – are dying.”
A Ukrainian soldier shows a rifle during regular military exercises in the midst of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, April 29, 2022. Reuters / Ueslei Marcelino
It was difficult to get a complete picture of the unfolding battle in the east, because air raids and artillery barricades have made the movement of journalists extremely dangerous. Both Ukraine and Moscow-backed rebels fighting in the east have also imposed severe restrictions on reports from the battle zone.
Numerically, Russia’s military manpower far exceeds that of Ukraine. 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 is about 200,000, spread across the country.
So far, however, Russian troops and separatist forces appear to have made only small gains in Donbas a month since Moscow said it would focus its military presence in eastern Ukraine.
Partly because of the persistence of the Ukrainian resistance, the U.S. believes the Russians are “at least several days behind where they wanted to be” as they try to encircle Ukrainian troops in the east, a senior U.S. defense official said on condition of anonymity. discuss the assessment of the US military.
The British Defense Department offered a similar assessment in its daily assessment of the war, saying it believed Russian forces in Ukraine were likely to suffer from “weakened morale”, along with a lack of unit-level skills and “inconsistent air support”. He did not say on what basis he made the assessment.
Despite the nature of the small village struggle to gain ground in Donbas, Russia’s promised attack could materialize. In total, the Russian army has about 900,000 active-duty personnel. Russia also has a much larger air force and navy than Ukraine and has regular nuclear weapons.
In Mariupol, about 100,000 people are believed to still be in the city with little food, water or medicine. UN spokesman Farhan Haq said the organization was negotiating with authorities in Moscow and Kyiv to create the conditions for safe passage.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s spokesman discusses talks between Zelensky and Putin, attack in Kyiv 05:51
Ukraine has blamed the failure of several previous evacuation attempts on the ongoing Russian bombing.
For those at the Soviet-era Azovstal steel plant, a vast underground network of tunnels and warehouses has ensured air raid safety. However, the situation has become more dire after the Russians dropped “bunker busters” and other bombs on the factory, the mayor said.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told Saudi television network Al-Arabiya that the real problem was that “humanitarian corridors are being ignored by Ukrainian supranationals.” Moscow has repeatedly claimed that right-wing Ukrainians were obstructing evacuation efforts and using civilians as human shields. The allegations have not been verified.
Azov’s constitution, which helps defend the steel plant, has its roots in the Azov Order, which was formed in 2014 by far-right activists at the start of the separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine.
In further comments released by Xinhua on Saturday, Lavrov said Russia had evacuated more than 1 million people from Ukraine since the start of the war, including more than 300 Chinese civilians.
The Foreign Minister did not provide any evidence to support his claim in the interview. Ukraine has accused Moscow of forcibly sending Ukrainians out of the country.
Lavrov also blamed in part the lack of progress in the talks on ending the war “in the war rhetoric and incendiary actions of Western supporters of the Kiev regime.” On Russian state television tonight, guests suggest Moscow use nuclear weapons in the conflict. Russia also recently introduced a new intercontinental ballistic missile with nuclear capability.
Russian propaganda expert Marco Suprun told CBS News’ Chris Livesay that tackling nuclear weapons is a psychological ploy to prevent the United States and other allies from helping Ukraine.
“Letting Russia decide whether or not to arm Ukraine because it has nuclear weapons is already a victory for Russian misinformation, because you have convinced it of your greatness,” Suprun said.
In a video overnight, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of trying to destroy Donbas and everyone living there.
The constant attacks “show that Russia wants to empty this territory of all people,” he said.
“If the Russian invaders are able to carry out their plans, even in part, then they have enough artillery and aircraft to turn the whole of Donbass into stones, as they did in Mariupol,” Zelensky said.
In a neighborhood on the outskirts of Kharkiv that is regularly bombed by Russian forces, some residents have remained in their apartments even though the buildings have charred holes. There is no running water or electricity, so they gather outside to cook on an open flame.
Ukrainian reservists staying in a neighborhood cellar said the Russians hit the buildings with rockets, artillery and tanks.
“A tank can come a short distance and launch all its ammunition into residential areas. It does not care where. And it is impossible to know where it will fire,” said Vladislav, who like others in the unit would only give the his first name.
Another reserve, nicknamed Malysh, expressed his frustration that he could not do more to stop the Russian advance.
“I took the weapons, but unfortunately I can not catch flying missiles with my bare hands and throw them back,” he said.
In the nearby village of Ruska Lozava, hundreds of people were evacuated after Ukrainian forces recaptured the city from the Russian occupiers, according to the regional governor. Those who took refuge in Kharkov spoke of miserable conditions under the Russians, with little water or food and no electricity.
“We were hiding in the basement. It was horrible. The basement was shaking from the explosions. We were screaming, crying and praying to God,” said resident Ludmila Bocharnikova.
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