Some women and children were evacuated from the steel plant, the last stronghold in the bombed-out ruins of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, while House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited the Ukrainian president in the capital in a show of US support.
Russia’s offensive in coastal southern Ukraine and the country’s eastern industrial center has forced Ukrainian forces to fight village by village and more civilians fleeing air strikes and artillery fire as the war reaches its doorstep.
Thousands are thought to be trapped with little food, water or medicine in blocked Mariupol. The United Nations worked to mediate the evacuation of about 1,000 civilians, who were pressed by about 2,000 Ukrainian fighters under stretched Soviet-era steelmaking, the only part of the city not occupied by the Russians.
Footage released early Sunday by the office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky shows Pelosi in Kyiv with a delegation from Congress, including Jason Crowe, Jim McGovern, Gregory Meeks and Adam Schiff. The visit was not announced in advance.
“Your battle is a battle for all”
“We believe we are visiting you to thank you for your struggle for freedom,” said Pelosi, who is the second in the US presidency after the vice president and the highest-ranking US leader to visit Ukraine since the start of the war.
“We are on the verge of freedom and your battle is a battle for all. Our commitment is to be by your side until the battle is over,” Pelosi added.
Pelosi’s office did not say when the meeting took place, but the light in the video and other details suggest that the meeting took place on Saturday. Members of Congress Barbara Lee and Bill Keating were also named as part of the delegation, although it was unclear whether they were in Kyiv.
A woman cries as relatives and activists take part in a rally demanding international leaders organize a humanitarian corridor to evacuate Ukrainian military and civilians from Mariupol amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in central Kyiv, Ukraine, on Saturday. (Ephraim Lukacki / Associated Press)
The delegation was due to hold a press conference in the Polish city of Rzeszow on Sunday.
Russian forces have launched a major military operation to seize large parts of southern and eastern Ukraine after failing to seize the capital. Mariupol is a major destination because of its strategic location near the Crimean peninsula, which Russia took from Ukraine in 2014.
Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency reported on Saturday that 19 adults and six children had been taken out of Azovstal’s steel plant, but gave no further details.
“These are women and children”
A senior official with the Azov Regiment, Ukraine’s unit defending the plant, said 20 civilians had been evacuated during the ceasefire, although it was unclear whether he meant the same group. There was no confirmation from the UN
“These are women and children,” Svyatoslav Palamar said in a video posted on the regiment’s Telegram channel. He also called for the evacuation of the wounded: “We do not know why they were not taken away and their evacuation to the territory controlled by Ukraine is not being discussed.”
Ukraine has blamed the failure of numerous previous attempts to evacuate ongoing Russian shelling.
UN humanitarian spokesman Saviano Abreu said the world body was negotiating with authorities in Moscow and Kyiv to evacuate Mariupol, but he could not provide details of the ongoing efforts “due to the complexity and smoothness of the operation.”
Abreu did not confirm a video posted on social media that allegedly shows UN-marked vehicles in Mariupol.
In the town of Lyman in the Donetsk region, where at least half of the population fled Russian shelling, about 20 elderly people and children clutching bags, along with their dogs and cats, boarded a minivan with the words “evacuation of children” in Ukrainian. . He was on his way to the city of Dnipro when explosions were heard in the distance.
“Free us from what? Our life?
“The liberators came and freed us from what? Our lives?” said Nina Mikhailenko, a professor of Russian language and literature, targeting Russian forces.
Video and images from inside the plant shared in front of the Associated Press by two Ukrainian women who said their husbands were among the fighters who refused to surrender there showed unidentified men with dirty bandages; others had open wounds or amputated limbs.
Skeletal medical personnel have treated at least 600 wounded, said the women, who identified their husbands as members of the Azov Regiment of the National Guard of Ukraine. Some of the wounds rotted with gangrene, they said.
Destroyed houses were filmed in Irpin, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, on Saturday. (Emilio Morenati / Associated Press)
In the video, the men say they eat only once a day and share only 1.5 liters of water a day between four people, and that supplies at the besieged facility have been depleted.
The AP could not independently verify the date and location of the video, which the women said was shot last week in a maze of corridors and bunkers below the plant.
The women also called for Ukrainian fighters to be evacuated along with civilians, warning that they could be tortured and executed if captured. “The lives of soldiers also matter,” Yulia Fedusyuk told the AP in Rome.
Zelensky pronounces the address partly in Russian
In a video address late Saturday, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky switched to Russian to urge Russian troops not to fight in Ukraine, saying even their generals expect thousands more to die.
The president accused Moscow of recruiting new soldiers “with little motivation and little combat experience” so that units gutted at the start of the war could be returned to battle.
“Every Russian soldier can still save his own life,” Zelensky said. “It is better to survive in Russia than to die on our land.
In other developments:
- Ukrainian Deputy Agriculture Minister Taras Vysotsky said in a televised statement that Russian forces had seized hundreds of thousands of tons of grain in a territory under their control. Ukraine is a major producer of grain and the invasion has raised world prices and raised fears of shortages.
- A Russian missile attack destroyed the runway at Odessa Airport, Ukraine’s third most populous city and a key port in the Black Sea, the Ukrainian military said.
Getting a complete picture of the unfolding battle in eastern Ukraine was difficult because air strikes and artillery shelling made the movement of reporters extremely dangerous. In addition, both Ukraine and Moscow-backed insurgents have imposed strict restrictions on reporting from the war zone.
Russia’s manpower far exceeds that of Ukraine
But Western military analysts suggest the offensive in the Donbass region, which includes Mariupol, is much slower than planned. So far, Russian troops and separatists appear to have made little progress in the month since Moscow said it would focus its military forces to the east.
Numerically, Russia’s military strength far exceeds that of Ukraine. In the days before the war, Western intelligence estimated that Russia had positioned up to 190,000 troops near the border; Ukraine’s permanent military numbers about 200,000 people scattered throughout the country.
Hollywood film star and UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie poses for a photo with children in Lviv, Ukraine, on Saturday. (Maxim Kozutsky / Lviv City Hall / Associated Press)
With much firepower still in reserve, Russia’s offensive could still intensify and conquer the Ukrainians. In total, the Russian army has about 900,000 troops. Russia also has a much larger air force and navy.
Hundreds of millions of dollars of military aid have entered Ukraine since the start of the war, but Russia’s vast arms depots mean Ukraine will continue to need enormous support.
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