Ukraine

ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine (AP) — Russian forces kept up their barrage of southern Ukraine, hitting the major Black Sea port of Odesa with cruise missiles and bombarding the steelworks up the coast in Mariupol, where Ukrainian fighters remained trapped underground after the last civilians were brought out to safety.

Moscow was aiming to complete its conquest of Mariupol in time for Victory Day celebrations on Monday. But it was facing stiff resistance elsewhere.

KYIV, May 4 (Reuters) - Kyiv will be ready if Belarus's armed forces join Russia's war effort in Ukraine, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian State Border Service said on Wednesday.

Belarus, a close ally of Russia, said its military had begun large-scale drills on Wednesday to test their combat readiness and that they posed no threat to its neighbours. 

May 7 (Reuters) - All women, children and elderly people have been evacuated from the besieged Azovstal steel plant in the southern port of Mariupol, Ukraine's deputy prime minister said on Saturday.

"This part of the Mariupol humanitarian operation is over," Iryna Vereshchuk wrote on the Telegram messaging service.

Ukraine announced on Friday an evacuation plan from Azovstal and other parts of Mariupol for Saturday.

KIEV, May 6 (Xinhua) -- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his country stands ready to resume talks on settling the conflict with Russia after Russian forces return to the positions they held before Feb. 24, the Ukrinform news agency reported Friday.

"They need to withdraw to those temporary contact lines or dividing lines - they must withdraw troops there. Then we can start the full-scale talks," Zelensky was quoted as saying.

He emphasized that "not all the bridges" for peace talks with Russia have been destroyed.

ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine (AP) — Rescuers were seeking to evacuate more civilians from tunnels beneath a sprawling steel mill in Mariupol as Ukrainian fighters make their last stand to prevent Moscow’s complete takeover of the strategically important port city.

Dozens of people were evacuated Friday from the Azovstal plant and handed over to representatives of the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross, Russian and Ukrainian officials said. The Russian military said the group of 50 included 11 children.

LVIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian fighters battling Russian forces in the tunnels beneath Mariupol’s immense steel plant refused to surrender in the face of relentless attacks, with the wife of one commander saying they had vowed to “stand till the end.”

The battle, in the last Ukrainian stronghold of the strategic port city reduced to ruins by the Russian onslaught, appeared increasingly desperate on Thursday.

“They won’t surrender,” Kateryna Prokopenko said after speaking by phone to her husband, a leader of the steel plant defenders. “They only hope for a miracle.”

KYIV, May 5 (Reuters) - The mayor of Ivano-Frankivsk in western Ukraine urged residents on Thursday to avoid public gatherings this weekend, or leave the city if they can, for fear of Russian missile strikes.

His announcement followed warnings by Ukrainian officials that Russia might step up its offensive in Ukraine before May 9, when Moscow commemorates the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two.

Mayor Ruslan Martsinkiv said in a video posted online that he had cancelled all official events in Ivano-Frankivsk on Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

LVIV, Ukraine (AP) — Heavy fighting raged Thursday at the shattered steel plant in Mariupol as Russian forces attempted to finish off the city’s last-ditch defenders and complete the capture of the strategically vital port.

The bloody battle came amid growing suspicions that President Vladimir Putin wants to present the Russian people with a major battlefield success — or announce an escalation of the war — in time for Victory Day on Monday. That is the biggest patriotic holiday on the Russian calendar, marking the Soviet Union’s triumph over Nazi Germany.

04 May 2022; MEMO: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Wednesday the problem of global food security could not be solved without restoring Ukrainian agricultural production and Russian food and fertilizer output to the world market, reports Reuters.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February has added to volatility in financial markets, sending commodity prices higher and affecting logistics, potentially derailing the economic recovery from COVID-19 in many countries including Nigeria.

KYIV, May 4 (Reuters) - Kyiv will be ready if Belarus's armed forces join Russia's war effort in Ukraine, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian State Border Service said on Wednesday.

Belarus, a close ally of Russia, said its military had begun large-scale drills on Wednesday to test their combat readiness and that they posed no threat to its neighbours.