“Surrender for us is unacceptable,” say fighters at besieged Azovstal plant
Ukrainian fighters at the besieged Azovstal steel plant “will fight to the end” to liberate the port city of Mariupol from Russian occupation, one of their leaders told a news conference on Sunday.
“Surrender for us is unacceptable, because we cannot give such a big gift to the enemy,” said llya Samoilenko, a lieutenant in the Azov regiment, a volunteer force with neo-Nazi roots.
Speaking via video link, he added: “We have spent all our defense resources here. We are dead men, most of us know that.”
Although the unit had some supplies left, the plant is out of range of drone support for additional supplies and Russian anti-aircraft nets have made air support impossible, he said.
He added that Russian forces have begun attacking the plant with ground units, trying to “squeeze out the Ukrainians.”
At the same press conference, Svyatoslav Palamar, deputy commander of the unit, said that the factory is under heavy bombardment.
Neither Samoilenko nor Palamar could say for sure if there were any civilians left inside the plant.
A boy dies after collecting ammunition from a Russian cluster bomb
A 12-year-old boy died after he picked up munitions from a Russian cluster missile and detonated, the head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional State Administration said on Sunday.
Valentyn Reznichenko said in a post on her Telegram channel that the boy, whom she did not name, took the ammunition home. “There he detonated the explosive device,” he added.
NBC News has been unable to verify his claim.
Jill Biden crosses to Ukraine and meets the first lady
2h ago / 14:22 UTC
UZHHOROD, Ukraine — First Lady Jill Biden traveled to war-torn Ukraine on Sunday, where she joined her Ukrainian counterpart in a Mother’s Day show of solidarity for women fleeing the Russian invasion.
After crossing the border with Slovakia, Biden traveled to the western city of Uzhhorod, where he met Olena Zelenska, Ukraine’s first lady, at a school.
“I thought it was important to show the Ukrainian people that this war has to end, and this war has been brutal, and that the people of the United States stand with the people of Ukraine,” Biden said.
Zelenska, who has not been seen in public since the invasion began, thanked Biden for what she called “an act of bravery.”
Read the full story here.
Ukrainian troops withdraw from Popasna, says Lugansk governor
Ukrainian troops have withdrawn from the eastern Ukrainian town of Popasna, the governor of the Luhansk region said on Sunday, confirming earlier reports that it had been taken.
The head of the Russian republic of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, said on Sunday that his troops had taken control of most of Popasna.
Lugansk Governor Serhiy Gaidai told Ukrainian television that Ukrainian troops had withdrawn to take up more fortified positions, adding: “Everything was destroyed there.”
Russian forces launched a new offensive push in April along most of Ukraine’s eastern flank, with some of the heaviest attacks and shelling taking place recently around Popasna in the Luhansk region.
A man stands in a crater after the Russian airstrike in Bakhmut, Donetsk region, Ukraine, on Saturday.
The president of the German parliament arrives in kyiv
German parliament speaker Baerbel Bas arrived in kyiv on Sunday to commemorate World War II victims and hold political talks, a parliament official said on Twitter.
Enrico Brissa, the Bundestag’s chief of protocol, posted on Twitter images of Baerbel arriving on a train and meeting with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal.
“Faltering performance” has brought Russian commanders to the battlefield, the UK Ministry of Defense says.
Senior Russian commanders have been drawn to the battlefield due to “faltering performance on the front line” and “difficulties in command and control”, Britain’s Defense Ministry said at a briefing on Sunday. Intelligence.
Commanders, who “rarely delegate operational authority to subordinates,” are likely to take personal leadership in operations, he said in the regular update on Twitter.
“The forward deployment of commanders has exposed them to significant risk, resulting in disproportionately high losses of Russian officers in this conflict. This has resulted in a force that is slow to respond to setbacks and unable to shift its approach on the battlefield,” he said.
“However, it is not clear that the presence of these commanders on the battlefield has led to a refined or altered operating concept,” he added. “Faulty planning assumptions and sustainment failures continue to undermine Russian progress.”
At least 60 dead after Russian airstrike on school
At least 60 people are feared dead after a Russian airstrike hit a school where people were sheltering in the eastern village of Bilohorivka, Luhansk Governor Serhiy Haidai said on Sunday.
Fires broke out at the school after the Saturday afternoon attack, Haidai said in a post on his Telegram channel that was translated by NBC News.
He said two people had been confirmed dead. Among the 30 people who were evacuated, seven were injured, he added.
“The 60 people left under the rubble of the buildings are most likely dead,” Haidai said.
Russian missiles rain on Odessa, according to Ukrainian military
Jill Biden listens to the anguish of Ukrainian mothers now in Romania
BUCHAREST, Romania — Jill Biden on Saturday heard harrowing stories of Ukrainian women and children who fled war in Russia and found a safe haven across the border in Romania, with the U.S. first lady praising the Romanian government and organizations relief for the variety of humanitarian aid they provide. providing refugees.
At a Romanian public school that houses refugee students, Biden saw firsthand relief efforts to help some of the 900,000 Ukrainians who have fled to Romania since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24.
Most of those Ukrainians have moved to other countries, but many, mainly women and children, have stayed behind as the fighting continues.
“We are with you,” Biden told the mothers of some of the students after visiting classrooms where children ages 5 to 15 attend school.
500 hospitals damaged, dozens of doctors killed and wounded since the war began, says Ukraine’s health minister
Ukraine’s health care infrastructure has been severely damaged, in some cases beyond repair, Health Minister Viktor Liashko said.
Speaking on Ukrainian television, Liashko detailed the extent of the destruction and cost to health professionals in the weeks after Russia’s invasion on February 24.
“Since the beginning of the war, 10 of my colleagues (doctors) have died and more than 40 have been injured,” Liashko said.
More than 40 hospitals have also been destroyed and cannot be rebuilt and some 500 hospitals have been damaged and cannot provide treatment, he said.
“All of this violates the WHO motto: ‘Health for all,'” Liashko said.
Reference-www.nbcnews.com