Russia said Thursday that 1,730 Ukrainian soldiers had surrendered this week at Mariupol's Azovstal steel plant, showing some emerging on crutches after a desperate battle that has become emblematic of the nearly three-month-old war.<\/p>\n
The number included 80 who were wounded and taken to a hospital in Russia-controlled territory in eastern Ukraine, the defence ministry in Moscow said.<\/p>\n
The ministry released a video appearing to show exhausted Ukrainian soldiers trudging out of the sprawling steelworks, after a weeks-long siege forced the defenders and civilians to huddle in tunnels with dire shortages of food, water and medicine.<\/p>\n
Russian troops patted down those surrendering and inspected their bags as they exited, signalling the effective end of what Ukraine's government had called a \"heroic\" resistance.<\/p>\n
The International Committee of the Red Cross said it had registered \"hundreds of Ukrainian prisoners of war\" from the plant in Mariupol, a port city obliterated by Russian shelling.<\/p>\n
Ukraine is hoping to exchange the Azovstal soldiers for Russian prisoners. But pro-Kremlin authorities in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region said some of them could be put on trial.<\/p>\n
Ukrainian prosecutors have so far listed 12,595 alleged war crimes by the invaders, including the bombing of a maternity ward in Mariupol, and opened the first trial of a Russian soldier Wednesday.<\/p>\n
- 'Please forgive me' -<\/p>\n
Vadim Shishimarin pleaded guilty to a war crime in shooting dead Oleksandr Shelipov, an unarmed 62-year-old man, in northeastern Ukraine on February 28 -- four days into the invasion.<\/p>\n
The 21-year-old sergeant, who faces a life sentence, was remorseful as he took the dock for a second day Thursday, as two other Russian soldiers went on trial elsewhere in Ukraine.<\/p>\n
\"I know that you will not be able to forgive me, but nevertheless I ask you for forgiveness,\" Shishimarin said, addressing Shelipov's widow in the cramped courtroom in Kyiv.<\/p>\n
While Mariupol has fallen, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said the wider invasion was an \"absolute failure\" as he marked \"Vyshyvanka Day\", an annual celebration of Ukrainian folk traditions.<\/p>\n
Wearing an embroidered shirt instead of his usual military khaki top, Zelensky said on the Telegram social media platform that his people remained \"strong, unbreakable, brave and free\".<\/p>\n
\"I have no doubt we will seize our independence\" but at the cost of \"tens of thousands of lives\", he told Ukrainian university heads and students.<\/p>\n
Zelensky's defiance, and his army's dogged resistance, have earned the West's admiration and a steady flow of military support.<\/p>\n
The US Congress approved a $40-billion aid package for Ukraine Thursday as Washington ramped up support for Kyiv.<\/p>\n
Germany said it would contribute one billion euros to shore up Ukrainian government coffers as G7 finance ministers met to coordinate action.<\/p>\n
But German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Ukraine would have \"no shortcuts\" to membership of the European Union. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba condemned the \"second-class treatment\" of his country.<\/p>\n
- Famine warning -<\/p>\n
Russia's actions are already redrawing the security map of Europe.<\/p>\n
US President Joe Biden hosted the leaders of Finland and Sweden to discuss their bids to join NATO, after the Nordic nations decided to abandon decades of military non-alignment.<\/p>\n
\"They meet every NATO requirement and then some,\" Biden told reporters with the Nordic leaders at his side, offering them \"complete backing\".<\/p>\n
However, NATO member Turkey is \"determined\" to block the applications, its President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, calling Sweden in particular a \"complete terror haven\".<\/p>\n
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance was \"addressing the concerns that Turkey has expressed\".<\/p>\n
Beyond Europe, the invasion also threatens to bring famine, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said.<\/p>\n
\"Malnutrition, mass hunger and famine\" could follow \"in a crisis that could last for years\", Guterres warned, urging Russia to release grain exports from occupied Ukraine.<\/p>\n
Russia and Ukraine produce 30 percent of the global wheat supply, and the war has already sent food prices surging around the world.<\/p>\n
- Civilians under fire -<\/p>\n
Despite their last-ditch resistance in places such as Mariupol, and the successful defence of Kyiv, Ukrainian forces are retreating in the east.<\/p>\n
The losses often come after weeks of battles over urban hubs that are pulverised by artillery fire by the time the Russians surround them.<\/p>\n
Ukraine's defence ministry said Thursday that Russia was intensifying its attacks in the eastern Donbas region and preventing civilians from fleeing to Ukrainian-controlled territory.<\/p>\n
In Severodonetsk, 12 people were killed and another 40 wounded when Russian forces \"randomly\" shelled the eastern city, the regional governor said.<\/p>\n
In the Kharkiv region, one man was killed and five others injured Thursday, regional governor Oleg Synegubov said on Telegram.<\/p>\n
Later Thursday, the governor of Donetsk, Pavlo Kyrylenko, said on Telegram five civilians were killed and six others were wounded in Russian attacks in the eastern region.<\/p>\n
Severodonetsk resident Nella Kashkina sat in her basement next to an oil lamp and prayed.<\/p>\n
\"I do not know how long we can last,\" the 65-year-old said.<\/p>\n
\"We have no medicine left and a lot of sick people -- sick women -- need medicine. There is simply no medicine left at all.\"<\/p>\n
burs-jit\/imm\/raz<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Russia said Thursday that 1,730 Ukrainian soldiers had surrendered this week at Mariupol's Azovstal steel plant, showing some emerging on crutches after a desperate battle that has become emblematic of the nearly three-month-old war. The number included 80 who were wounded and taken to a hospital in Russia-controlled territory in eastern Ukraine, the defence ministry […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553,1],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-92492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed","category-non-classifiee"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n