প্রকাশ: 08/05/2022
All women, children
and elderly civilians have been evacuated from the Azovstal steel mill in
Mariupol, Ukrainian officials said on Saturday, after a week-long effort
rescued hundreds of people during an ongoing Russian assault at the plant.
"This part of the Mariupol humanitarian operation is
over," Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk wrote on the Telegram
messaging app.
The Soviet-era steel mill, the last holdout in Mariupol for
Ukrainian forces, has become a symbol of resistance to the Russian effort to
capture swathes of eastern and southern Ukraine in the 10-week-old war.
Under heavy bombardment, fighters and civilians have been
trapped for weeks in deep bunkers and tunnels criss-crossing the site, with
little food, water or medicine.
Russian forces backed by tanks and artillery tried again on
Saturday to storm Azovstal, seeking to dislodge the last Ukrainian defenders in
the strategic port city on the Azov Sea, Ukraine's military command said.
Weeks of Russian bombardment have left Mariupol in ruins.
The steel mill has been largely destroyed. During pauses in fighting,
evacuations of civilians began last weekend, brokered by the United Nations and
the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a late night
address that more than 300 civilians had been rescued from the plant.
Authorities would now focus on evacuating the wounded and medics, and helping
residents elsewhere in Mariupol and surrounding settlements to safety, he said.
Russian-backed separatists have also reported a total of 176
civilians evacuated from the plant. It was not clear if civilian men were still
there.
Ukrainian fighters in the plant have vowed not to surrender.
It was unclear how many remained, and Ukrainian officials fear Russian forces
want to wipe them out by Monday, when Moscow commemorates the Soviet Union's
victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two.
In Washington, U.S. Central Intelligence Agency Director
William Burns said Russian President Vladimir Putin is convinced "doubling
down" on the conflict will improve the outcome for Russia.
"He's in a frame of mind in which he doesn't believe he
can afford to lose," Burns said at a Financial Times event.
Putin declared victory in Mariupol on April 21, ordered the
plant sealed off and called for Ukrainian forces inside to disarm. Russia later
resumed its assault.
Moscow calls its actions since Feb. 24 a "special
military operation" to disarm Ukraine and rid it of anti-Russian
nationalism fomented by the West. Ukraine and the West say Russia launched an
unprovoked war.
In Kyiv on Saturday, the World Health Organization said it
had documented 200 attacks on healthcare facilities in Ukraine, the latest
allegations of war crimes by Russian forces. Russia has denied attacking
civilian targets.
Mariupol, which lies between the Crimean Peninsula seized by
Moscow in 2014 and parts of eastern Ukraine taken by Russia-backed separatists
that year, is key to linking the two Russian-held territories and blocking
Ukrainian exports.
Ukraine's general staff said Russia's offensive in eastern
Ukraine aimed to establish full control over the Donetsk and Luhansk regions
and maintain the land corridor between these territories and Crimea.
Ukrainian armed forces fighting in the two eastern regions
controlled by Russian-speaking separatists said in a Facebook post they fought
off nine enemy attacks on Saturday, destroying 19 tanks and 24 other armoured
vehicles as well as downing a helicopter.
Luhansk regional governor Serhiy Gaidai said Russia dropped
a bomb on a school in the village of Bilohorivka, where about 90 people were
sheltering. Around 30 have been rescued so far, he said on Facebook.
The Russian defence ministry did not immediately respond to
a request for comment about the alleged bombing.
Zelenskiy in his address expressed outrage over Russian
shelling overnight that destroyed a museum dedicated to the 18th century
philosopher and poet Hryhoriy Skovoroda in the village of Skovorodynivka near
Kharkiv.
Other Russian attacks near Kharkiv, Ukraine's second biggest
city, blew up three road bridges to slow counter-offensive actions, the
Ukrainian military's general staff said.
Russia's defence ministry said it destroyed a large
stockpile of military equipment from the United States and European countries
near the Bohodukhiv railway station in the Kharkiv region.
Russian forces hit 18 Ukrainian military facilities
overnight, including three ammunition depots in Dachne, near the southern port
city of Odesa, the ministry said.
Reuters could not independently verify either side's
statements about battlefield events.
Russia's lower house of parliament speaker Vyacheslav
Volodin accused Washington of coordinating military operations in Ukraine,
which he said amounted to direct US involvement in military action against
Russia.
U.S. officials have said the United States has provided
intelligence to Ukraine to help counter the Russian assault, but have denied
this intelligence includes precise targeting data.
Washington and European members of the transatlantic NATO
alliance have supplied Kyiv with heavy weapons, but say they will not take part
in the fighting.
A senior Russian commander said last month Russia planned to
take full control of southern Ukraine to improve Russian access to
Transdniestria, a breakaway region of Moldova.
Pro-Russian separatists in Moldova said Transdniestria was
hit four times by suspected drones overnight near the Ukrainian border.
Ukraine has repeatedly denied any blame for the incidents,
saying it believes Russia is staging the attacks to provoke war. Moscow, too,
has denied blame.
- REUTERS
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