Civilians flee from besieged Mariupol

KYIV: At least 20 civilians, including several children, were able to leave a badly battered steel plant in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol in what could be the start of a longawaited, larger evacuation of the Russian-held city.

Ukrainian fighters of the Azov regiment, which has been defending the site, said the 20 civilians had left, possibly for the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, about 225km northwest.

A United Nations-planned evacuation had been in the works, though it was unclear whether Saturday’s evacuation was UN-led and whether further evacuations were imminent. There were no immediate details on the condition of the evacuees.

But the fact the evacuation took place was significant. Conditions in a vast network of tunnels under the Azovstal steel plant, where hundreds of civilians are believed to still be sheltering, along with Ukrainian fighters , are said to be brutal, and earlier efforts at evacuations had been futile.

The apparent ceasefire in Mariupol took place as Russian attacks continued unabated across Ukraine, most heavily in the fiercely disputed eastern regions, but with attacks as far west as Odessa, on the Black Sea coast.

Odessa’s regional governor Maxim Marchenko said a Russian missile strike had destroyed the airport runway, as Russia continues targeting infrastructure and supply lines deep in the west of the country.

There were no victims from the airport strike near the historic city of one million people.

Near Bucha, the town that has become synonymous with allegations of Russian war crimes, Ukrainian police reported finding three bodies shot in the head with their hands tied. “The victims’ hands were tied, cloths were covering their eyes and some were gagged. There are traces of torture on the corpses,” police said.

Russian forces also on Saturday kept up their relentless shelling on the east of the country, killing at least one person and injuring 12 more.

On the front line in the east, Russian troops advanced slowly but steadily but Ukrainian forces also recaptured some territory particularly around the city of Kharkiv.