Russia storms Mariupol steel plant

Russian forces Tuesday began storming the steel mill containing the last pocket of resistance in Mariupol.

ZAPORIZHZHIA, UKRAINE » 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 bombedout 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.” One evacuee said she went to sleep at the plant every night afraid she wouldn’t wake up.

Evacuees, a few of whom were in tears, made their way from the buses into a tent offering some of the comforts long denied them during their weeks underground, including hot food, diapers and connections to the outside world.