The defenders have sworn not to surrender. Ukrainian officials fear Russian forces will want to wipe them out by Monday, time for Moscow commemorations of the former Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.
Ukraine said 50 civilians were evacuated on Friday, accusing Russia of breaching a truce to allow dozens of others still trapped underground to leave after weeks of siege.
Mariupol has suffered the most destructive bombardment in the 10-week war, and the sprawling Soviet-era Azovstal factory is the last part of the city – a strategic southern port on the Sea of Azov – still in the hands Ukrainian fighters.
Zelenskiy said in a late evening video address that Ukraine was working on a diplomatic effort to save defenders barricaded inside the steelworks. It was not clear how many Ukrainian fighters remained in the steel plant.
“Influential intermediaries are involved, influential states,” he said, without providing further details.
Evacuations under the auspices of the United Nations began last weekend for some of the hundreds of civilians who had taken refuge in a network of tunnels and bunkers under the factory. But they were interrupted during the week by the resumption of fighting.
On Friday afternoon, 50 women, children and elderly people were evacuated, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said, adding that the operation would continue on Saturday. The Russian side has consistently violated a local ceasefire, she said, which has made the evacuation very slow.
Russia has confirmed the number of people evacuated and said: “The Azovstal humanitarian operation will continue on May 7”.
The town’s mayor estimated earlier this week that 200 people were trapped in the factory with little food and water. The number of people remaining was unclear.
Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said Russia was trying to finish off the forces inside the plant in order to seize it by Monday as a gift for President Vladimir Putin in time for Victory Day. Second World War.
Putin declared victory in Mariupol on April 21, ordered the closure of the plant and called on Ukrainian forces inside to disarm. But then Russia resumed its assault on the factory.
Asked about Russia’s plans to mark the anniversary of World War II in the parts of Ukraine it holds, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “The time will come to mark the day of Victory Mariupol”.
BATTLE FOR THE EAST
Ukraine and its Western allies say that after failing to capture the capital kyiv, Russian forces made slow progress in their revised goal of capturing the east and south of the country, but may also consider involving the Ukraine’s western neighbour, Moldova.
Mariupol, which lies between the Crime Peninsula seized by Moscow in 2014 and parts of eastern Ukraine taken by Russian-backed separatists that year, is key to linking the two Russia and block Ukrainian exports.
Moscow describes its actions as a “special military operation” to disarm Ukraine and rid it of what it calls anti-Russian nationalism fomented by the West.
Ukraine and the West claim that Russia has launched an unprovoked war and have accused Russian forces of war crimes. Moscow denies these allegations and says it only targets military or strategic sites, not civilians.
More than 5 million Ukrainians have fled abroad since the start of the invasion.
UNIT MANIFESTATION
US President Joe Biden signed a $150 million arms package for Ukraine on Friday, providing additional artillery munitions, radar and other equipment in the latest in a series of transfers to help kyiv repel the invasion of Russia.
Mr. Biden and other Western leaders plan to hold a video call with Mr. Zelenskiy on Sunday, the White House said, as a sign of unity.
The UN Security Council – including Russia – expressed “deep concern” over the situation in Ukraine, its first statement since the February 24 invasion.
The toughest sanctions ever imposed on a major power have resulted in Russia’s $1.8 trillion economy heading for its biggest contraction since the years following the outbreak of the crisis. Soviet Union in 1991. European Union on other measures.
But the new sanctions package, which includes an oil embargo, has met with some opposition, with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban likening it to an “atomic bomb” loose on the economy.