kyiv, Ukraine, May 2 (Reuters) – Around 100 civilians evacuated from the ruins of the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol were due to arrive in a Ukrainian-controlled city on Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, after the U.S. president , Nancy Pelosi, paid a surprise visit to kyiv, Ukraine. kyiv.
The strategic port city on the Sea of Azov has suffered the most destructive siege of the war with Russia, now in its third month, with Pope Francis, in an implicit criticism of Moscow, telling thousands in St Peter’s Square on Sunday that it had been “barbarously bombed”. read more
“For the first time, we had a two-day ceasefire in this territory and we managed to eliminate more than 100 civilians, women, children,” Zelenskiy said in a late-night video address.
Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
The first evacuees would arrive in the Ukrainian-controlled city of Zaporizhzhia on Monday morning, he said, after the UN confirmed a “safe passage operation” was underway.
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said hundreds of civilians remain trapped in the steelworks, a vast Soviet-era complex with a network of bunkers and tunnels.
“The situation has become a sign of a real humanitarian catastrophe, because people are running out of water, food and medicine,” Vereshchuk said on Telegram on Sunday night.
Footage from inside the steel mill showed members of the Azov regiment helping civilians through the rubble and onto a bus.
An older evacuee accompanied by young children said survivors were running out of food fast.
“Children have always wanted to eat. You know, adults can wait,” he added.
More than 50 civilians arrived at a temporary accommodation center in Russian-held territory on Sunday after fleeing Mariupol, a Reuters photographer said. read more
A plan to evacuate civilians from devastated areas of the city outside the steelworks has been postponed until Monday morning, the Mariupol city council said.
Russia’s military has turned its attention to southern and eastern Ukraine after failing to capture kyiv in the first weeks of a war that leveled cities, killed thousands of civilians and forced more than 5 million to flee the country.
Kremlin forces were trying to take the town of Rubizhne and prepare an assault on Sievierodonetsk in eastern Ukraine, the general staff said Monday, while further east, Dnipro Governor Valentyn Reznichenko said a missile Russian hit a grain silo, but caused no casualties. .
Lugansk region governor Serhiy Gaidai said three people had been killed by shelling in the past 24 hours.
Two explosions occurred in the early hours of Monday in Belgorod, the southern Russian region that borders Ukraine, Vyacheslav Gladkov, the region’s governor, wrote in a social media post. The cause of the explosions was not immediately clear, and Gladkov said there were no casualties or damage.
With fighting spreading along a wide front in southern and eastern Ukraine, US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pledged continued US support for Ukraine “until victory is won” after meeting Zelenskiy on an unannounced visit to kyiv.
Images posted by Zelenskiy on Twitter on Sunday showed him, flanked by an armed escort and dressed in military fatigues, greeting a US congressional delegation led by Pelosi outside his presidential office the day before.
“We stand with Ukraine until victory is won. And we stand with our NATO allies to stand with Ukraine,” Pelosi, the highest-ranking US official to visit Ukraine since Russia invaded on Feb. 24, said Sunday in a press conference in Poland. .
Zelenskiy praised four hours of talks with Pelosi focused on US arms deliveries as substantive, adding that he was grateful to all of Ukraine’s partners visiting kyiv at such a difficult time.
US Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said he would add provisions to a $33 billion Ukraine aid package to allow the US to seize the assets of Russian oligarchs and send money from their sale directly to Ukraine. kyiv. read more
Moscow calls its actions a “special military operation” to disarm Ukraine and rid it of anti-Russian nationalism fostered by the West. Ukraine and the West say that Russia has launched an unprovoked war of aggression.
Moscow is pushing for full control of the Donbas region, where Russian-backed separatists already controlled parts of Lugansk and Donetsk provinces before the invasion.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow only wanted to ensure the safety of pro-Russian Ukrainians in the east and was not demanding that Zelenskiy “surrender” as a condition for peace.
“We demand that you issue an order to release the civilians and stop the resistance. Our goal does not include regime change in Ukraine,” Lavrov said in a media interview published on his ministry’s website.
Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Reporting by Hamuda Hassan and Jorge Silva in Dobropillia, Ukraine, Natalia Zinets in kyiv; Additional reporting by Reuters journalists; Written by Lincoln Feast; Edited by Stephen Coates
Our standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Reference-www.reuters.com