All civilian women, children and elderly people have been evacuated from the Azovstal steelworks, the Ukrainian government announced on Saturday (May 7th). “The President’s order has been carried out: all women, children and old people have been evacuated from Azovstal. This part of Mariupol’s humanitarian mission is accomplished”Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said on social media.
The Azovstal steel plant is the last pocket of resistance of Ukrainian forces against the Russian army in the devastated city of Mariupol, in the south of the country. The evacuations continued on Saturday, after several attempts in the previous days. On Friday, 50 people were able to leave the huge Azovstal steelworks, the last pocket of resistance of the Ukrainian forces in this port city in the south-east.
Three road bridges destroyed
At the same time, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense claimed in its morning report on Saturday that “the enemy did not stop his offensive”. “In Mariupol, the enemy continues to block Ukrainian defense units in the Azovstal district”assured the ministry, which also mentioned the destruction of three road bridges by the Russians “to slow down the counter-offensive” in the Kharkov region.
Missile strikes were reported on Friday and Saturday in this northeastern region as well as in the city of Mykolaiv (south) and around Donetsk (east), according to the same source.