Evacuation operations for civilians from the Azovstal steel site in Mariupol continued on Saturday as Russian forces focus their offensives on the Donbass region in eastern Ukraine. Here’s what to remember from Sunday, May 1.
Dozens of civilians evacuated from the Azovstal complex…
For the first time after multiple failed attempts, dozens of civilians were able to be evacuated from the Azovstal complex where they were trapped with the Ukrainian soldiers who are still resisting under Russian bombs. Satellite images from Maxar Technologies taken on April 29 showed that almost all the buildings of the huge steel complex had been destroyed by bombardment, with Ukrainian soldiers and civilians holed up in the many underground galleries dating back to Soviet times.
Russian forces control almost all of this strategic port city, largely destroyed after weeks of siege.
…soon to be welcomed in Zaporizhia, west of Mariupol
The Ukrainian President announced that the hundred civilians evacuated from the Azovstal complex were heading towards “territory controlled by Ukraine”. Their final destination must be Zaporijia, a large Ukrainian city located 200 km west of Mariupol where they will be welcomed tomorrow, according to Volodymyr Zelensky.
The Russian Ministry of Defense has assured that “thanks to the initiative of Russian President Vladimir Putin, 80 civilians, including women and children, detained by Ukrainian nationalists, were rescued from the territory of the Azovstal plant in Mariupol (…), evacuated to the village of Bezimennoye in the People’s Republic of Donetsk (under Russian control, editor’s note), where they received accommodation, food and the necessary medical assistance”.
In eastern Ukraine, Russian pressure intensifies
President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that the Russians “formed reinforcements in the Kharkiv region, trying to increase the pressure in the Donbass”. A senior Ukrainian military official stressed “the difficult situation” in the east of the country, particularly in the regions of Izium and Sieverodonetsk, “where the enemy has concentrated most of his efforts and his most combat-ready troops”.
The northeastern districts of Kharkiv, the country’s second city with nearly 1.5 million inhabitants before the war, are hit daily by Russian rockets, causing the death of civilians.
Moscow accused of using “trolls” to relay its propaganda
The British government claims to have spotted, in a former factory in Saint Petersburg, a group of Internet users recruited by Moscow to relay Russian propaganda on social networks, targeting media accounts and Western leaders. According to a report commissioned by London, this group of “trolls” known as “Cyber Front Z” would have targeted the British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, his German counterpart Olaf Scholz, but also David Guetta or Daft Punk, for example.