There are fears that about 60 people have been killed in the Russian bombing of a rural school in the eastern Ukrainian region of Luhansk, the district governor said on Sunday.
Governor Sergei Gaidai said Russian forces dropped a bomb on Saturday afternoon at a school where about 90 people had taken refuge in the basement, causing a fire that engulfed the Belohorivka building.
“The fire was extinguished after nearly four hours, then the ruins were cleared and the bodies of two people were unfortunately found,” Gaidai wrote in the Telegram news app.
“Thirty people were evacuated from the rubble, seven of whom were injured. Probably 60 people died under the rubble of buildings.”
Reuters could not immediately verify the report.
Ukraine and the West have accused Russian forces of targeting civilians in the war, which Moscow denies.
More civilians were evacuated from the steel plant
In the devastated southeastern port city of Mariupol, dozens of civilians were rescued from a sprawling steel plant in a week-long operation mediated by the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a statement late Saturday that more than 300 civilians had been rescued from Azovstal’s steel plant and authorities would now focus on trying to evacuate the wounded and medics. Other Ukrainian sources cite various figures.
WATCH Civilians evacuated from the Mariupol Steel Factory:
Civilians evacuated from Mariupol Steel Factory as Russian forces continue attack
The Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine said that all women, children and the elderly had been evacuated from the besieged steel plant in Mariupol. It is not clear where all evacuees are headed. 5:09
Russian-backed separatists announced a total of 176 civilians evacuated from the plant on Saturday.
The Azovstal plant is the last stronghold for Ukrainian forces in the city, which is now largely controlled by Russia, and many civilians have taken refuge in its underground shelters. It has become a symbol of resistance to Russian efforts to seize parts of eastern and southern Ukraine.
“We will continue to fight”
Ukrainian fighters at the steel plant pledged to continue their position on Sunday.
“We will continue to fight while we are alive to repel the Russian occupiers,” Captain Svyatoslav Palamar, deputy commander of the Azov Ukrainian Regiment, told an online conference. The regiment is a far-right armed group that was included in the National Guard of Ukraine after Russia’s first invasion in 2014.
Smoke rises from the Azovstal steel plant during a shelling in Mariupol, a territory under the government of the Donetsk People’s Republic, in eastern Ukraine on Saturday. (Alexei Alexandrov / Associated Press)
“We do not have much time; we are under intense fire, “he said, begging the international community to help evacuate wounded soldiers from the plant.
Russian President Vladimir Putin called the invasion, which began on February 24, a “special military operation” to disarm Ukraine and free it from anti-Russian nationalism fueled by the West. Ukraine and its allies say Russia has started an unprovoked war.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Husnulin wore a helmet and bulletproof vest on Sunday when he visited Mariupol and took a short tour of the coast.
A video provided by Russia’s self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic shows Husnulin visiting the port with the republic’s leader, Denis Pushilin.
Zelenski will hold a video interview with G7 leaders
Mariupol is key to blocking Ukrainian exports and connecting the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula in 2014 and parts of the eastern Luhansk and Donetsk regions controlled by Russian-backed separatists that year.
In an emotional address on Sunday, Victory Day in Europe, as Europe marks the official capitulation of Germany in 1945 to Allies in World War II, Zelensky said “evil has returned” to Ukraine with the Russian invasion, but that his country it would prevail.
US President Joe Biden and other G7 leaders held a video interview with Zelensky on Sunday in a demonstration of unity ahead of Monday’s Victory Day celebrations in Russia.
The White House said in a statement that the entire G-7 had committed itself to “phasing out or banning Russian oil imports” and would work together to ensure a stable global energy supply while accelerating our efforts to reduce fossil dependence. fuels “.
Stressing Western support for Ukraine, Britain has pledged another 1.3 billion pounds ($ 2.1 billion Cdn) in military support and assistance, doubling its previous spending commitments.
Trudeau and Zelensky meet in Kyiv
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau paid an unannounced visit to Ukraine on Sunday to meet with Zelensky in the capital, Kyiv.
The prime minister’s office said it had planned the visit to show Canada’s support for the country and its people. Deputy Prime Minister Christia Freeland and Foreign Minister Melanie Jolie are with Trudeau.
Trudeau attends a flag-raising event to mark the reopening of the Canadian embassy in Kyiv. Canada announced the closure of its embassy on February 12 amid fears of an impending invasion of Russia.
Representatives of most Western countries fled Ukraine when the war broke out, but more than two dozen have already returned, although the conflict is dragging on.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, center-right, walks with Alexander Markushin, right, mayor of Irpin, Ukraine, on Sunday. Irpin, on the outskirts of Kyiv, was the scene of some of the heaviest fighting in March, when Russian forces tried to storm the capital. (Irpin City Hall / Associated Press)
Jill Biden is on a surprise visit to Ukraine
US First Lady Jill Biden paid an unannounced visit to western Ukraine on Sunday, holding a surprise Mother’s Day meeting with Zelensky’s wife, Olena, in Uzhhorod, near the Slovak border.
“I wanted to come to Mother’s Day,” Biden told Olena Zelenska as the two gathered in a small classroom.
Jill Biden, the wife of the US president, left, receiving flowers on Sunday from Olena Zelenska, the wife of the Ukrainian president, in front of a public school that has accepted displaced students in Uzhgorod, Ukraine. (Susan Walsh / Associated Press)
“I thought it was important to show the Ukrainian people that this war must stop and that this war was brutal and that the people of the United States are with the people of Ukraine,” Biden said.
Putin’s speech must be closely monitored
Victory Day is a major event in Russia, and Putin will chair a parade in Moscow’s Red Square on Monday of troops, tanks, missiles and intercontinental ballistic missiles, showing military might even as his forces fight in Ukraine.
His speech may offer clues to the future of the war. Russia’s efforts have been hampered by logistics and equipment problems and heavy casualties in fierce resistance.
Aerial view shows a new road to the ruined bridge over the Irpin River in Irpin, on the outskirts of Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, on Saturday. (Alexei Furman / Getty Images)
The director of the US Central Intelligence Agency, William Burns, said on Saturday that Putin was convinced that “doubling” the conflict would improve the outcome for Russia.
“He’s in a mood he doesn’t believe he can afford to lose,” Burns told the Financial Times in Washington on Saturday.
The attacks were repulsed in eastern Ukraine, the military said
Mariupol, located between the Crimean peninsula occupied by Moscow in 2014 and parts of eastern Ukraine captured by Russian-backed separatists in the same year, is key to connecting the two Russian-held territories.
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said on Sunday that Ukrainian units near the Azovstal plant continue to be blocked and that Russia continues its attack with artillery and tanks in Mariupol.
Russia’s offensive in eastern Ukraine aims to establish full control of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions – where pro-Russian separatists have declared breakaway republics – and to maintain a land corridor between those territories and Crimea.
Ukrainian forces in both regions repulsed nine enemy attacks, destroying 19 tanks, 20 war machines and one unit of enemy special engineering equipment, the General Staff said on Sunday. Reuters could not immediately verify the reports.
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