The shelling of the Azovstal steel plant is resuming, a Ukrainian officer said

Dmytro, 39, is sitting next to the grave of his childhood friend Andriy Parkhomenko on May 1 in Irpin, Ukraine. (Alexei Furman / Getty Images)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a speech Sunday that the vital corridor for the evacuation of civilians from the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol has opened for the first time today.

Zelenski said for the first time that there had been two days of “real ceasefire” and added that more than 100 civilians had been evacuated from the plant.

Earlier on Sunday, Ukrainian authorities, along with the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross, confirmed that efforts were under way to evacuate civilians fleeing the plant.

The plant has been the target of heavy Russian bombing in recent weeks. Hundreds of people, dozens of whom were injured, are believed to be in the steel complex.

Zelensky said the first evacuees will arrive in Zaporozhye on Monday morning, where the Ukrainian government will meet them. He added that the Ukrainian government will continue to evacuate people from Mariupol on Monday, starting at about 8 am local time.

The evacuation of civilians from the besieged city of Mariupol in southern Ukraine has been suspended from Sunday evening to Monday for “security reasons,” the Mariupol City Council said in a statement to Telegram.

The evacuation will begin at 8 am local time (1 am ET), near the Port City shopping center in Mariupol, the post office added.

Here are some of the latest headlines from the Russia-Ukraine war:

• Ukraine’s foreign minister tells EU’s top diplomat that Russian oil embargo should be included in next sanctions: Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba told EU’s top diplomat Josep Borel that the Russian oil embargo should be included in the next round of sanctions on the block. In a tweet Sunday, Kuleba said he had spoken to the European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy about “the next round of EU sanctions against Russia, which should include an oil embargo.” The foreign minister criticized the EU’s failure to impose an embargo on Russian oil imports, saying at a NATO news conference in early April that “as long as the West continues to buy Russian gas and oil, it supports Ukraine with one hand while supporting the Russian war machine. with the other hand. ”
• Russia’s war in Ukraine is having a “catastrophic effect” on world food prices, says USAID administrator: Samantha Power, administrator of the United States Agency for International Development, said Sunday that the effects of the war in Ukraine include global food shortages and prices. supporting “our job is to look at it globally” when asked if the global consequences reflect a looming world war. “This is just another catastrophic effect of Putin’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine,” Power told ABC’s This Week. This comes after US President Joe Biden pressured Congress on Thursday to consider providing Ukraine with an additional $ 33 billion aid package, with $ 3 billion in humanitarian aid and food security.
• Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States says Pelosi’s visit to Kyiv was “symbolic”: Ukrainian ambassador to the United States Oksana Markarova said on Sunday that the recent visit of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Kyiv was “symbolic” and that Ukraine looks forward to the approval by the US Congress of a $ 33 billion additional funding bill aimed at supporting Ukraine over the next few months. “We need all the help we can get in defense weapons, in military support, in financial support, but also in humanitarian support,” Markarova said in an interview with ABC’s This Week. “We look forward to Congress approving it,” and “we’re counting on the United States to do that,” she said. On Saturday, Pelosi headed the first official delegation of the US Congress in Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian invasion.
• Ukraine’s chief prosecutor says there are more than 9,000 war crimes cases under investigation: Ukraine’s chief prosecutor says her office is opening new cases of alleged Russian war crimes, with a total of 9,158 criminal cases “involving purely military crimes. ” Prosecutor Irina Venediktova said: “We have already identified specific war criminals.” She added: “In the Kiev region, for example, there are 15 people, 10 of whom are in Bucha. We hold them responsible for torture, rape and robbery.” Last week, Ukrainian prosecutors identified ten Russian soldiers as suspects in various crimes in Bucha.