Kyiv After weeks of blockade, 264 soldiers have been evacuated from the Azov steelworks in Mariupol, according to Ukrainian sources. Among them were 53 seriously injured, as the Ukrainian general staff announced on Tuesday night.
Another 211 militants were taken to the town of Olenivka, in the Russian separatist-controlled Donetsk region. A possible exchange of prisoners with Russia is planned for all evacuees, it said.
Work is still underway to evacuate more soldiers from the plant. Several hundred soldiers are said to be on the site.
Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maljar emphasized that freeing Azovstal was not possible. A planned exchange of prisoners has not yet been officially confirmed by the Russian side. The Russian Defense Ministry had previously only spoken of a ceasefire for the evacuation.
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President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his video address that Ukraine needs its heroes alive. “We hope that we can save the lives of our people,” he said. The International Red Cross and the United Nations were also involved in the evacuation of the soldiers.
Ukrainian soldiers are still in the steelworks.
(Photo: IMAGO/ITAR-TASS)
The port city of Mariupol was surrounded shortly after the Russian invasion in February. The strategically important city was exposed to heavy bombing and rocket attacks. Experts and Ukrainian authorities assume thousands of civilian deaths. Russian troops gradually took control after the siege. The city’s last Ukrainian defenders, however, holed up in the huge steelworks with several underground floors.
The Russian troops did not risk an attempt at storming, but sealed off all entrances. “Block this industrial zone so that not even a fly comes out,” Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin instructed his military in front of the camera. The area was repeatedly bombed. Hundreds of civilians who also fled to the steelworks from advancing Russian troops had already been evacuated from the factory premises in the past few days.
Another rocket attack near Lviv
The area around the city of Lviv in western Ukraine was again the target of an air raid. The attack was aimed at a military facility in the Yavoriv district on the border with Poland, local military chief Maxim Kositsky wrote on Telegram. Mayor Andriy Sadowy emphasized that there was no information about rocket hits in the city and thanked the air defense.
In mid-March, a Russian airstrike hit the military training area in Javoriv, killing 35 people according to Ukrainian sources. In Yavoriv, Ukrainian soldiers had trained with Western instructors in recent years.
Lviv in western Ukraine has also been the target of rocket attacks time and again.
(Photo: dpa)
19 civilians killed in Donetsk and Luhansk regions
According to the authorities, at least 19 civilians have been killed in the contested eastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk. “As a result of the shelling of Sieverodonetsk, at least ten people died,” military governor of the Luhansk region Serhiy Hayday told the Telegram news service.
Due to the attacks, however, it was extremely difficult to check the location. Nine more civilians were killed in neighboring Donetsk Oblast, according to local military governor Pavlo Kyrylenko. Six other people were injured.
Scholz does not see the end of the war anytime soon
Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) sees no signs that the war in Ukraine will end anytime soon. “Unfortunately, so far it has not been possible to see that the insight has grown that this should be ended here as soon as possible,” he said on the “RTL Direkt” program. You also have to “worry that there will be an escalation of the war”.
Scholz stressed that Germany would continue to supply arms to Ukraine. He expects the promised Gepard anti-aircraft tanks to be made available “relatively quickly”. However, he pointed out that ammunition was still being sought abroad.
The Chancellor is holding on to arms deliveries.
(Photo: IMAGO/Christian Spicker)
UNICEF: War in Ukraine exacerbates child malnutrition
According to UNICEF, the war in Ukraine is exacerbating the problem of severe malnutrition among children. “Even before the war in Ukraine, many families were struggling to feed their children due to conflict, climate shock and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Catherine Russell, UNICEF Executive Director. Now there are additional problems. The Ukraine, which is regarded as Europe’s granary, can export far less grain as a result of the war, among other things.
This is how the Handelsblatt reports on the Ukraine war:
That will be important on Tuesday
The Finnish parliament continues to debate whether to join NATO. It is unclear whether a decision will be made. In addition, Finland’s President Sauli Niinistö is traveling to Sweden at the invitation of King Carl XVI. Gustaf on a two-day state visit to Stockholm.
Against the background of the decisions of both countries to apply for NATO membership, the meeting will deal, among other things, with the common defense policy.
The EU defense ministers are meeting in Brussels and want to talk, among other things, about the war in Ukraine and the implementation of the Union’s security policy concept. In Ukraine, the fate of the remaining Ukrainian soldiers in the Azovstal steelworks will be the focus of attention after a good 260 fighters were able to leave the premises.
More: You can follow the latest developments in our news blog