Some civilians appear to be leaving steel plant in Mariupol, Ukraine
As Mariupol buckles after more than two months of Russian bombardments, more civilians appear to be fleeing the Ukrainian city.
Russian state media reported Saturday that 25 civilians have been evacuated from a steel plant that is the last stronghold in a strategic city largely leveled in Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked war.
A Ukrainian official confirmed that some people holed up in the plant had left thanks to an agreement between the warring countries.
“We have brought 20 civilians to the agreed meeting point, whom we’ve managed to rescue from under the rubble,” Capt. Svyatoslav Palamar, the deputy commander of the Azov Regiment said. “These are women and children.”
There are thought to be about 1,000 civilians in the plant, which dates back to the days of the Soviet Union. Up to 2,000 military personnel are thought to be in there as well.
The city itself was a top target of Putin’s barbarism due to its location on the Sea of Azov. The population was about 430,000 when the war began on Feb. 24. It’s now believed to be down to 100,000 with people fleeing for other nations or safer parts of Ukraine.
Palamar said the initial evacuations on Saturday were focused on the elderly, women and children.
“We hope that this process will be further extended and we will successfully evacuate all civilians,” he said.
Mariupol is part of the Donbas region, which has been the Russians’ main objective in the last month. Russian forces appeared to have made only minor gains in that area, Western military analysts said.
With Ukraine defending its land fiercely, the Russians are “at least several days behind where they wanted to be” a senior U.S. defense official told the Associated Press on a condition of anonymity.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to express support.
“The prime minister reiterated that he is more committed than ever to reinforcing Ukraine and ensuring Putin fails, noting how hard the Ukrainians are fighting for their freedom,’’ read a statement released through Johnson’s office.
“He confirmed that the U.K. will continue to provide additional military aid to give the Ukrainians the equipment they need to defend themselves,” the statement said.
Among the issues Ukraine is dealing with are fuel shortages due to Russian attacks on infrastructure. As his people waited in long lines at gas stations, Zelenskyy admitted there were “no immediate solutions” but hoped the shortages would ease in the next week or two.
Mariupol has been short not only on fuel but on food and water for weeks.
Then there is the sheer cruelty of the invasion.
Three bodies were found buried in a forest near the Kyiv suburb of Bucha. The dead men had been tortured before they were shot in the head, Kyiv Police Chief Andriy Nebytov wrote on Facebook.
Ukrainian officials have said that retreating Russian forces executed multiple civilians in Bucha.
Reports of such atrocities and mass graves full of civilians have stunned people worldwide, including Pentagon press secretary John Kirby, who got emotional Friday when speaking of Putin.
“It’s hard to look at what he’s doing in Ukraine, what his forces are doing in Ukraine, and think that any ethical, moral individual could justify that,” Kirby said. “It’s difficult to look at some of the images and imagine that any well-thinking, serious, mature leader would do that. So, I can’t talk to his psychology. But I think we can all speak to his depravity.”
As the war grinds on, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told Chinese state news agency Xinhua that Russian and Ukrainian negotiators talk “almost every day, but “progress has not been easy.”
Meanwhile, a video from inside the steel plant painted a dire picture, with a grim warning from a shirtless man with two broken ribs, a punctured lung and a dislocated arm.
“I want to tell everyone who sees this: If you will not stop this here, in Ukraine, it will go further, to Europe,” he said.
With News Wire Services
