Russia carried out missile strikes in southern and eastern Ukraine on Saturday, and some women and children were evacuated from a steel mill in the besieged city of Mariupol after sheltering there for more than a week, according to Ukrainian sources.
After failing to conquer the capital Kyiv in a nine-week assault that devastated cities, murdered thousands of civilians, and caused more than 5 million to flee abroad, Moscow has shifted its focus to Ukraine's south and east.
Its forces have taken the southern town of Kherson, giving them a footing within 100 kilometres (62 miles) north of Russian-annexed Crimea, and have mostly controlled Mariupol, a major eastern port city on the Azov Sea.
On April 21, Russia declared victory in Mariupol, despite the fact that hundreds of Ukrainian military and citizens sought refuge in the Azovstal steel factory. The United Nations has encouraged an evacuation agreement, and a Ukrainian fighter inside stated on Saturday that 20 women and children had escaped.
"We're pulling civilians out of the rubble with ropes - the elderly, women, and children," said Sviatoslav Palamar, referring to the destruction within the 4 square kilometre factory.
Palamar stated that both Russia and Ukraine were abiding by a local truce and that he hoped the evacuated population would be moved to the northwest Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia.
Russia and the United Nations made no comment on the evacuations. According to Ukrainian officials, hundreds of Ukrainians are still inside.
To the west, in Odesa, which has escaped the war relatively unharmed, a Russian missile launched from Crimea wrecked the runway at the main airport, according to Maksym Marchenko, the regional governor of Odesa. He went on to say that no one was wounded.
The airport could no longer be used, according to Ukraine's military. Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, swore in a late-night video message to restore the airport, saying, "Odesa will never forget Russia's behaviour against it."
Moscow had no comment on the incident, despite the fact that its forces have previously targeted Odesa, Ukraine's third-largest city. According to Ukrainian officials, eight people were killed in a Russian airstrike on the city last week.
Moscow's offensive in the south aims, in part, to connect the territory with Crimea as it presses for complete control of Ukraine's eastern Donbas region. Before Moscow's February 24 invasion, parts of Donbas' two provinces, Luhansk and Donetsk, were already under the authority of Russian-backed separatists.
Zelenskiy stated in his speech that Russia was "gathering extra forces for new strikes against our military in the east of the country" and "seeking to escalate pressure in the Donbas."
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