A new initiative has begun on Friday to evacuate dozens of civilians stranded at a heavily bombed steel mill in the city of Mariupol, Ukraine, it said.

Mariupol, a strategic port city on the Sea of ​​Azov, suffered the most devastating siege of the 10-week war, and the sprawling Soviet-era steel mill at Azovstal is the last part of the city still in the hands of Ukrainian fighters.

The evacuation of some of the hundreds of civilians who took refuge in the tunnel and shelter network of the power plant, through the United Nations, began over the weekend, but has been interrupted by renewed conflicts in recent days.

Andriy Yermak, head of the Ukrainian presidential team, said: “The next stage of liberating our people from Azovstal is currently underway. Information about the results will be given later.” said. He did not give further details.

After failing to capture the capital, Kiev, in the first weeks after the February 24 invasion, Russia turned the most firepower into eastern and southern Ukraine. The new front aims to limit Ukraine’s access to the Black Sea, which is vital to its grain and metal exports, and to connect Russian-held territory to the east with the Crimean peninsula, taken by Moscow in 2014.

Moscow describes its actions as a “special military operation” to disarm Ukraine and free it from anti-Russian nationalism supported by the West. Ukraine and the West say that Russia has launched a war of aggression without reason. More than 5 million Ukrainians have fled abroad since the invasion began.

The Ukrainian General Staff said on Friday that Russian forces are continuing “attempts to fully seize the Donetsk and Luhansk regions”, with the eastern territories partially captured by Moscow-backed separatists in 2014.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said it destroyed a large ammunition depot in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk in a missile attack. He also said that the air defense shot down two Ukrainian warplanes in the Luhansk region.

It was not possible to independently verify the statements of both sides about the events on the battlefield.

Ukrainian officials, Russia, Moscow’s Soviet Union II.

destroyed hospitals

About 4,000 hospitals and other medical facilities in the country have been damaged since the invasion, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday.

“This equates to a complete lack of medicine for cancer patients. That means extreme hardship for diabetes, or a complete lack of insulin,” Zelenskiy said in a video talk to a medical aid group. Said. “It’s impossible to have surgery. It just means no antibiotics.”

The Kremlin says it only targets military or strategic locations, not civilians. Ukraine reports daily civilian casualties in Russian bombings and wars and accuses Russia of war crimes. Russia denies the allegations.