About 200 people, including children, are still trapped in the sprawling Azovstal steel plant as Russians intensify assault.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called for a longer ceasefire in order to evacuate more civilians from the battered city of Mariupol in southern Ukraine, as Russia intensifies its assault on the Azovstal steel plant; the last holdout of Ukrainian forces there. About 200 civilians, including children, are said to be taking shelter in the sprawling plant’s underground bunkers and Zelenskyy said it was necessary to “continue the silence” to get them all out.
“It will take time simply to lift people out of those basements, out of those underground shelters. In the present conditions, we can not use heavy equipment to clear the rubble away. It all has to be done by hand,” the president said in an early morning address to the country on Thursday.
Zelenskyy again appealed for the assistance of the United Nations, after the UN and Red Cross evacuated hundreds of people from Mariupol and other areas this week.
A Ukrainian parliamentarian said Russian forces were inside the Azovstal plant, and the commander of the regiment inside the vast factory said the situation was “extremely difficult” and that his soldiers were engaged in “heavy, bloody battles” with the Russians. “I am proud of my soldiers who are making superhuman efforts to contain the pressure of the enemy,” Lieutenant Colonel Denis Prokopenko said in a short video posted to Telegram. Source: aljazera.com
Monday, May 4, 2026
