Ukrainian Fighters Say Russian Forces Storming Mariupol Plant
People wait to be processed upon their arrival at a reception center for displaced people in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, on May 2.
Photographer: Francisco Seco/AP PhotoZaporizhzhia, Ukraine (AP) -- Russian forces Tuesday began storming the steel mill containing the last pocket of resistance in Mariupol, Ukrainian defenders said, just as scores of civilians evacuated from the bombed-out plant reached relative safety and told of days and nights filled with dread and despair from constant shelling.
Osnat Lubrani, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Ukraine, said that thanks to the evacuation effort over the weekend, 101 people — including women, the elderly, and 17 children, the youngest 6 months old — were able to emerge from the bunkers under the Azovstal steelworks and “see the daylight after two months.”