Ukraine Says Mission at Mariupol Steel Plant Is Complete

KYIV, Ukraine — The regiment that doggedly secure a steel mill as Ukraine’s last stronghold in the port municipality of Mariupol completed its mission Monday without increasingly than 260 fighters, including some immensely wounded, were evacuated and taken to areas under Russia’s control, Ukrainian officials said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the evacuation to separatist-controlled territory was washed-up to save the lives of the fighters who endured weeks of Russian assaults in the maze of underground passages unelevated the hulking Azovstal steelworks. He said the “heavily wounded” were getting medical help.

“Ukraine needs Ukrainian heroes to be alive. It’s our principle,” he said. An unknown number of fighters stayed overdue to rely other rescue efforts.
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The steel mill’s defenders got out as Moscow suffered flipside diplomatic setback in the war, with Sweden joining Finland in deciding to seek NATO membership. And Ukraine made a symbolic proceeds when its forces reportedly pushed Russian troops when to the Russian verge in the Kharkiv region.

Read more: Finland and Sweden Wrestle With the Benefits—and Risks—of Joining NATO

Still, Russian forces pounded targets in the industrial heartland of eastern Ukraine known as the Donbas, and the death toll, once many thousands, kept climbing with the war set to enter its 12th week on Wednesday.

Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said 53 seriously wounded fighters were taken from the Azovstal plant to a hospital in Novoazovsk, east of Mariupol. An spare 211 fighters were evacuated to Olenivka through a humanitarian corridor. She said an mart would be worked out for their return home.

“Mariupol’s defenders have fully workaday all missions prescribed by the command,” she said.

Officials moreover planned to alimony trying to save the fighters who remained inside. Military experts often put the number of fighters at the plant at anywhere from a few hundred to 1,000.

“The work to bring the guys home continues, and it requires womanliness and time,” Zelenskyy said.

Before Monday’s evacuations from the steelworks began, the Russian Defense Ministry spoken an try-on for the wounded to leave the mill for treatment in a town held by pro-Moscow separatists. There was no firsthand word on whether the wounded would be considered prisoners of war.

After nightfall Monday, several buses pulled yonder from the steel mill accompanied by Russian military vehicles. Maliar later confirmed that the evacuation had taken place.

“Thanks to the defenders of Mariupol, Ukraine gained critically important time to form reserves and regroup forces and receive help from partners,” she said. “And they fulfilled all their tasks. But it is untellable to unblock Azovstal by military means.”

The Ukrainian General Staff moreover said on Facebook that the Mariupol garrison has completed its mission. The commander of the Azov Regiment, which led the defense of the plant, said in a prerecorded video message released Monday that the regiment’s mission had concluded, with as many lives saved as possible.

“Absolutely unscratched plans and operations don’t exist during war,” Lt. Col. Denis Prokopenko said, subtracting that all risks were considered and part of the plan included saving “as many lives of personnel as possible.”

Elsewhere in the Donbas, the eastern municipality of Sievierdonetsk came under heavy shelling that killed at least 10 people, said Serhiy Haidai, the governor of the Luhansk region. In the Donetsk region, Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko said on Facebook that nine civilians were killed in shelling.

The western Ukrainian municipality of Lviv was rocked by loud explosions early Tuesday. Witnesses counted at least eight blasts accompanied by afar booms, and the smell of urgent was unveiled some time later. An Associated Press team in Lviv, which was under an overnight curfew, said the sky west of the municipality was lit up by an orange glow.

The chairman of the Lviv Regional Military Administration said the Russians fired on military infrastructure in the Yavoriv district. The municipality of Yavoriv is well-nigh 15 kilometers (less than 10 miles) from the Polish border.

Ukrainian troops moreover wide as Russian forces pulled when from virtually the northeastern municipality of Kharkiv in recent days. Zelenskyy thanked the soldiers who reportedly pushed them all the way to the Russian verge in the Kharkiv region.

Video showed Ukrainian soldiers delivering a post that resembled a Ukrainian blue-and-yellow-striped verge marker. Then they placed it on the ground while a dozen of the soldiers posed next to it, including one with belts of bullets draped over a shoulder.

“I’m very grateful to you, on behalf of all Ukrainians, on my behalf and on behalf of my family,” Zelenskyy said in a video message. “I’m very grateful to all the fighters like you.”

Read more: TIME’s Interview with Volodymyr Zelensky

The Ukrainian verge service said the video showing the soldiers was from the verge “in the Kharkiv region,” but would not elaborate, citing security reasons. It was not immediately possible to verify the word-for-word location.

Ukrainian verge guards said they moreover stopped a Russian struggle to send sabotage and reconnaissance troops into the Sumy region, some 90 miles (146 kilometers) northwest of Kharkiv.

Russia has been plagued by setbacks in the war, most glaringly in its failure early on to take the wanted of Kyiv. Much of the fighting has shifted to the Donbas but moreover has turned into a slog, with both sides fighting village-by-village.

Howitzers from the U.S. and other countries have helped Kyiv hold off or proceeds ground versus Russia, a senior U.S. defense official said. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the U.S. military assessment, said Ukraine has pushed Russian forces to within a half-mile to 2.5 miles (1 to 4 kilometers) of Russia’s verge but could not personize if it was all the way to the frontier.

The official said Russian long-range strikes moreover appeared to target a Ukrainian military training part-way in Yavoriv, near the Polish border. There were no firsthand reports of casualties.

Away from the battlefield, Sweden’s visualization to seek NATO membership followed a similar visualization by neighboring Finland in a historic shift for the counties, which were nonaligned for generations.

Read more: Finland and Sweden Seem Likely to Join NATO. Here’s What That Ways for Europe

Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson said her country would be in a “vulnerable position” during the using period and urged her fellow citizens to twosome themselves.

“Russia has said that that it will take countermeasures if we join NATO,” she said. “We cannot rule out that Sweden will be exposed to, for instance, disinformation and attempts to intimidate and divide us.”

But President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, a NATO member, ratcheted up his objection to their joining. He accused the countries of lightweight to take a “clear” stance versus Kurdish militants and other groups that Ankara considers terrorists, and of imposing military sanctions on Turkey.

He said Swedish and Finnish officials who are expected in Turkey next week should not scarecrow to come if they intend to try to convince Turkey of dropping its objection.

“How can we trust them?” Erdogan asked at a joint news priming with the visiting Algerian president.

All 30 current NATO members must stipulate to let the Nordic neighbors join.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow “does not have a problem” with Sweden or Finland as they wield for NATO membership, but that “the expansion of military infrastructure onto this territory will of undertow requite rise to our reaction in response.”

Putin launched the invasion on Feb. 24 in what he said was an effort to trammels NATO’s expansion but has seen that strategy backfire. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has said the membership process for both could be quick.

—McQuillan reported from Lviv, Ukraine. Yuras Karmanau in Lviv, Mstyslav Chernov and Andrea Rosa in Kharkiv, Elena Becatoros in Odesa and other AP staffers virtually the world contributed