- The UN has confirmed that it is launching a safe passage operation from Mariupol
- Pelosi says the United States is with Ukraine after meeting with Zelensky
- “Our goal does not include regime change,” said Lavrov of Russia
- Moscow is stepping up its attack in Ukraine’s southern and eastern Donbass
Kyiv, Ukraine, May 2 (Reuters) – About 100 civilians evacuated from the destroyed Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol were due to arrive in a Ukrainian city on Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said after US President Nancy Pelosi paid a surprise visit to Kyiv.
The strategic port city of the Sea of Azov has suffered the most devastating siege of the war with Russia – now in its third month – with Pope Francis, in implicit criticism of Moscow, telling thousands of people in St. Peter’s Square on Sunday that it was “barbarically bombed” . Read more
“For the first time, we had two days of ceasefire in this area and we managed to bring out more than 100 civilians – women, children,” Zelenski said in an evening video address.
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The first evacuees will arrive in the Ukrainian-controlled city of Zaporozhye on Monday morning, he said after the UN confirmed that a “safe passage operation” was under way.
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshchuk said hundreds of civilians remained trapped at the steel plant, a huge Soviet-era complex with a network of bunkers and tunnels.
“The situation has become a sign of a real humanitarian catastrophe because people are running out of water, food and medicine,” Vereshchuk told Telegram late Sunday.
Footage from inside the steel plant shows members of the Azov Regiment helping civilians in the rubble and boarding a bus.
An elderly evacuee, accompanied by young children, said the survivors quickly ran out of food.
“Kids have always wanted to eat. You know, adults can wait,” she added.
More than 50 civilians arrived at a temporary accommodation center in Russian-controlled territory on Sunday after fleeing Mariupol, a Reuters photographer said. Read more
The plan to evacuate civilians from areas of the devastated city outside the steel plants was postponed until Monday morning, the Mariupol City Council announced.
Russia’s military has shifted its focus to southern and eastern Ukraine after failing to capture Kyiv in the first weeks of a war that leveled cities, killed thousands of civilians and forced more than 5 million to flee the country.
Kremlin forces were trying to seize the city of Rubezhne and prepare an attack on Severodonetsk, in eastern Ukraine, the General Staff said on Monday, while further east, Dnipro Governor Valentin Reznichenko said a Russian missile hit a grain silo. but did not cause casualties.
Luhansk Oblast Governor Sergei Gaidai said three people had been killed in shelling in the past 24 hours.
Two explosions occurred in the early hours of Monday in Belgorod, the southern region of Russia bordering Ukraine, the region’s governor Vyacheslav Gladkov wrote in a post on social media. The cause of the blasts is not immediately clear, and Gladkov said there were no casualties.
With the fighting raging across southern and eastern Ukraine, US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has vowed to continue US support for Ukraine “until victory is won” after she met with Zelensky during an unannounced visit to Ukraine. Kyiv.
Footage posted by Zelenski on Twitter on Sunday shows him, surrounded by an armed escort and dressed in military attire, greeting a US congressional delegation led by Pelosi in front of his presidential office the day before.
“We stand with Ukraine until victory is won. And we are with our NATO allies in support of Ukraine,” said Pelosi, a senior US official who visited Ukraine after Russia’s invasion on Sunday (February 24th) at a briefing on Sunday. the press in Poland.
Zelensky described as significant four-hour talks with Pelosi, focused on arms supplies from the United States, adding that he was grateful to all of Ukraine’s partners visiting Kyiv at such a difficult time.
U.S. Senate Democrat leader Chuck Schumer said he would add $ 33 billion to the aid package for Ukraine to allow the United States to confiscate the assets of Russian oligarchs and send money from their sale directly to Kyiv. Read more
Moscow has called its actions a “special military operation” to disarm Ukraine and free it from Western-backed anti-Russian nationalism. Ukraine and the West say Russia has started an unprovoked aggressive war.
Moscow is pushing for full control of the Donbass region, where Russian-backed separatists already controlled parts of Luhansk and Donetsk provinces before the invasion.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow only wanted to ensure the security of pro-Russian Ukrainians in the east and did not demand Zelensky “surrender” as a condition for peace.
“We want him to issue an order to release civilians and stop the resistance. Our goal does not include a change of regime in Ukraine,” Lavrov said in an interview with the media, published on his ministry’s website.
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Report by Hamuda Hassan and Jorge Silva in Dobropillya, Ukraine, Natalia Zinets in Kyiv; Additional reports from Reuters journalists; Writing by Lincoln Feast; Edited by Stephen Coates
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