Ukrainian soldiers evacuated from Mariupol steelworks
More than 260 Ukrainian soldiers, many of them
wounded, have been evacuated from the besieged Azovstal steel plant in
the port city of Mariupol, appearing to cede control of the city to Russia after 82 days of bombardment.
Ukraine’s
deputy defence minister, Hanna Maliar, said late on Monday that 53
heavily wounded soldiers were evacuated to a hospital in the
Russian-controlled town of Novoazovsk and that more than 200 others were
transported through a corridor to Olenivka. An “exchange procedure will
take place” to bring evacuees home, she said.
It was unclear how many soldiers remained in the steel plant, but Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said: “We hope to save the lives of our boys”.
“I want to underline: Ukraine needs its Ukrainian heroes alive. This is our principle,” he said in a video statement.
