Kyiv, Ukraine, May 1, 2022 (AFP) – President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Sunday that about 100 civilians have been evacuated from the Azovstal steelworks complex, the last stronghold of Ukrainian forces in the city of Mariupol.
The announcement comes after the UN confirmed that a “withdrawal operation is underway” in Azovstal, in coordination with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Russian troops and Ukrainian forces.
The Azovstal industrial estate is the last stronghold of Ukrainian resistance in the Russian-controlled southern port city of Mariupol.
Living conditions in the network of tunnels beneath the steelworks are described as brutal, where analysts believe hundreds of civilians remain alongside Ukrainian fighters. Previous efforts to evacuate civilians had failed.
Zelensky said on his Twitter account, “The evacuation of civilians from Azovstal has begun. The first group of nearly 100 civilians is already going to a controlled area. Tomorrow we will meet them in Zaporizhzhia.”
Russia’s Defense Ministry said 80 civilians had left the industrial zone and were taken to Moscow’s controlled eastern regions.
The Ministry of Defense has released a video of the operation, which shows that civilians arriving by bus in the town of Bezimenne, between the Russian border and Mariupol, were met by UN and ICRC envoys under surveillance by Russian soldiers.
It is unclear where the difference between evacuees from one source and another comes from, but Russia’s Ministry of Defense announced on Saturday that about 50 civilians had left Azovstal.
– “Barbaric” bombing – The fate of the civilians of this strategic city attracts the attention of world leaders.
On Sunday, the Pope reiterated his call for safe humanitarian corridors to be opened during the Angelus prayer in St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican.
“My thoughts are with Mariupol, the Ukrainian city of Mary, which was barbarously bombed and destroyed. I reiterate my call for safe humanitarian corridors to be opened,” Pope Francis said.
They were unlucky in providing military aid to Ukraine and imposed harsh sanctions against Russia.
“Do not be intimidated by tyrants,” Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi said in an interview in Poland after visiting Ukraine on Saturday, where she met with President Zelensky.
Pelosi, who is the third most important representative of the USA after the president and vice president, expressed her country’s “perfect” solidarity with Ukraine.
“The U.S. government is a leader who gives firm support to Ukraine in the fight against Russian aggression,” the Ukrainian president said in a message containing a video of him greeting Pelosi and the congressional delegation at the entrance to the presidential seat. in Kiev.
Zelensky welcomed the “very important signals” presented by the United States and President Joe Biden, who on Thursday demanded an additional $33 billion from Congress for Ukraine. Since the beginning of the Russian occupation, weapons and ammunition have been supplied to Ukraine.
In this context, Pelosi promised that she would work to get Biden’s proposal approved.
– “Difficult situation in the east” – The conflict is intensifying in eastern and southern Ukraine, although Russian bombardments aimed at destroying infrastructure and supply routes continue throughout the country.
For the Russians, the complete conquest of the port city of Mariupol will make it possible to unite the conquered territories in the south, especially the Crimean peninsula, which was annexed in 2014, with the pro-Russian separatist republics of Donetsk and Lugansk in the east. .
Numerically superior to its Ukrainian rival and better equipped with artillery, the Russian army is right on the eastern flank, seeking control from the north and south to complete its control over the Donbass.
A Ukrainian military commander briefed US Chief of Staff Mark Milley about the “difficult situation in the east, particularly in the Izium and Sieverodonetsk regions, where the enemy is making maximum efforts.”
Kharkiv witnessed numerous bombing attacks on Saturday. Regional governments announced on Sunday that eight civilians, including four in the town of Lyman, near the front, were killed in Russian bombings in the Kharkov and Donetsk regions, and are under threat from a Russian advance.
However, Ukrainian forces have also recaptured territory in recent days, especially around the city of Kharkov.
One of the liberated areas was the village of Ruska Lozova, which, according to its inhabitants, was occupied for two months.
“For two months we were without food in the cellar, we ate everything,” a 40-year-old resident told AFP.
– Introduction of the ruble – Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated that the military operation is proceeding as planned by Russia and warned Western countries to stop sending military aid to Ukraine.
In Russian-controlled areas, Moscow is trying to dominate and introduced the ruble as a currency in the Kherson region on Sunday, but it also allows payment in Ukrainian currency.
“We will integrate the ruble zone from May 1,” said Kirill Stremousov, who runs Kherson, according to the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.
Ukraine has announced a four-month period during which the currency can be used, but after that there will be a full transition to the ruble.
Meanwhile, on the front lines, the Ukrainian army is battling fatigue and holding its positions at the front.
“Everybody understands that we have to hold the line here, we can’t let the enemy come close,” Lieutenant Yevguen Samoilov told AFP to allow his soldiers to rest after two months of fighting.
“We tried to resist with all our new strength,” he concluded.
bur-ybl/roc/sba/thm/mis/zm/am
source: Noticias
