Civilians evacuate Mariupol steel plant

Elderly women and mothers with children climbed out of the Azovstal steel plant Sunday after a nearly two-month siege. The Soviet-era plant with a network of bunkers and tunnels is the city of Mariupol’s last holdout not occupied by Russian forces. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said more than 100 civilians would reach the Ukrainian-controlled city of Zaporizhzhia on Monday. Another group of evacuees arrived in the village of Bezimenne in Russian-controlled territory in Ukraine. 

Does this mark the end of the siege? One of the Ukrainians defending the steel plant said Russian forces resumed shelling once the evacuation wrapped up Sunday. About 100,000 people, including some 2,000 Ukrainian fighters beneath the steel plant, remain in Mariupol. Denys Shlega, commander of the 12th Operational Brigade of Ukraine’s National Guard, said several hundred civilians and nearly 500 wounded soldiers are trapped in the plant.

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