The Washington Post - USA (2022-05-08)

A12 EZ SU THE WASHINGTON POST.SUNDAY, MAY 8 , 2022

war in ukraine

BY DAVID L. STERN,

SHAYNA JACOBS,

TIMOTHY BELLA

AND TYLER PAGER

mukachevo, ukraine — All

women, children and elderly peo-

ple have been evacuated from the

Azovstal Iron and Steel Works

plant in Mariupol, officials said

Saturday, concluding one chapter

of a harrowing drama where

thousands of civilians had been

trapped for weeks amid an in-

tense Russian assault.

Ukrainian Deputy Prime Min-

ister Iryna Vereshchuk said in a

Telegram post that “this part of

the Mariupol humanitarian oper-

ation has been completed.” Ukrai-

nian fighters are still holed up at

the sprawling complex, and a

regional police leader told The

Washington Post that three were

killed Friday during the civilian

evacuation.

Ukrainian President Volod-

ymyr Zelensky said Saturday that

diplomatic efforts were under-

way to try to free the remaining

fighters as well as medics and the

wounded, though he acknowl-

edged that such a move “is ex-

tremely difficult.”

He said that 300 women and

children had been saved from the

plant, and that authorities would

look to provide humanitarian

corridors for civilians trapped in

other sections of Mariupol.

The decimation of Mariupol

has come to symbolize the worst

of the tragedy inflicted on the

Ukrainian people in the Russian

occupation that began in Febru-

ary. T he Azovstal steel plant, how-

ever, has come to represent the

resolve of Ukrainians to keep

their last foothold in the port city

on the nation’s southern shore

along the Sea of Azov.

While most residents had fled,

countless families remained bun-

kered beneath the complex of

several buildings and a labyrinth

of tunnels. Earlier escapees de-

scribed how they had lived for

more than a month without sun-

light as fear pervaded and food

dwindled.

Russia still aims to capture the

plant — the last sliver of Mariupol

under Ukrainian forces. Control

of Mariupol would allow Russia

to establish a land bridge with

annexed Crimea.

Fighting continued in

Ukraine’s eastern region over the

weekend, with the Ukrainians

accusing Russian forces of blow-

ing up three bridges northeast of

Kharkiv, the country’s second-

largest city, to prevent counterat-

tacks. In t he south, Russian forces

launched cruise missiles at the

Black Sea port of Odessa, hitting a

civilian target, according to the

Ukrainian military.

Russian forces also bombed a

school in the eastern region of

Luhansk, trapping dozens of peo-

ple in the rubble, the region’s

governor said. Health care facili-

ties in Ukraine have sustained

more than 200 attacks since the

war began, World Health Organi-

zation officials said, characteriz-

ing the assaults as war crimes.

As the war in Ukraine rages on,

Western leaders continue to offer

support for Ukraine as they ratch-

et up efforts to put pressure on

Russia to withdraw from its posi-

tions.

Zelensky is scheduled to be

part of a virtual meeting Sunday

with President Biden and the

heads of other Group of Seven

countries to discuss develop-

ments in Ukraine and the possi-

bility of additional sanctions im-

posed on Russia.

First lady Jill Biden, on a four-

day trip to Eastern Europe, was in

Romania on Saturday where she

met with Ukrainian mothers and

children who fled their homes,

embarking on harrowing jour-

neys to escape to safety. Their

stories appeared to leave Biden

close to tears. She voiced concern

that the refugee crisis “keeps

going on and on.”

Biden and Carmen Iohannis,

the first lady of Romania, visited a

school in Bucharest, the country’s

capital, where they met children

who were working on art proj-

ects. Mila, a 7-year-old from Kyiv,

wrote a message on her project

that her teacher translated as “I

want to return to my father.”

A 5-year-old child could not

write but drew pictures that her

teacher said conveyed this mes-

sage: “I want to go to Odessa as

soon as possible. That’s my wish.”

One mother, who had been a

teacher in Ukraine, fled to Roma-

nia with her 3-year-old in March

as bombing ravaged their city.

She said the Romanians had been

“wonderful” in offering assis-

tance to the refugees, kindness

“you don’t expect from people.”

Russia’s Victory Day is Mon-

day, and officials fear President

Vladimir Putin will use the holi-

day as a reason to increase the

pace of shellings and possibly to

officially declare “war” on

Ukraine. The Kremlin has avoid-

ed using the term to describe the

ongoing conflict that so far has

not earned Russia the regional

victories many expected it to

swiftly make.

Victory Day honors the Soviet

Union’s role in the defeat of Nazi

Germany. Putin has repeatedly

made the bogus claims that

Ukraine promotes neo-Nazism

and that Zelensky, who is Jewish,

is a Nazi sympathizer.

Comparing Ukraine to Nazi

Germany has been a hallmark of

Putin’s propaganda push in Rus-

sia, where criticism of the war is

illegal and a communications

crackdown has left Russians with

essentially no knowledge of the

conflict aside from what is re-

leased from official state media.

In Moscow, there was a Red

Square rehearsal for Victory Day

on Saturday ahead of a celebra-

tion that is expected to be a

chance for the Russian military to

showcase its wartime prowess.

The Russian Defense Ministry

says 11,000 troops and 131 items

of military hardware will be part

of a Victory Day parade on Mon-

day.

Ukrainian officials fear that

Victory Day could mean an esca-

lation of attacks as citizens were

reminded to heed warnings from

air raid sirens and to adhere to

local curfews.

CIA Director William J. Burns,

speaking at the Financial Times

Weekend Festival in Washington

on Saturday, said that Putin “is in

a frame of mind in which he

doesn’t believe he can afford to

lose; so the stakes are quite high

in this phase.”

“I think he’s convinced right

now that doubling down still will

enable him to make progress,”

Burns added.

Burns also noted that the “bit-

ter” first two to three months of

the conflict surprised Communist

Chinese officials, who could now

be recalculating their approach

to Ta iwan. The threat of a military

conflict has long loomed as China

has sought control of Ta iwan,

which it regards as a breakaway

province.

In his talk, Burns did not ad-

dress the sharing of U.S. intelli-

gence with Ukraine but the sub-

ject has recently become a sore

point for the Biden administra-

tion. A missile strike by Ukraini-

an forces that sank Russia’s flag-

ship in the Black Sea may not

have been possible without U.S.

assistance, The Post reported

Thursday.

The Pentagon has acknowl-

edged providing “battlefield in-

telligence” to help Ukrainians de-

fend their country but not specif-

ic targets.

Russia’s most senior lawmaker,

Vyacheslav Volodin, accused the

United States of “directly partici-

pating in military actions”

against Russia by providing intel-

ligence to Ukraine and added that

the U.S. should be “held account-

able” for Ukraine’s actions

against Russia.

Russia has shown signs of re-

covering from what has been an

underdog campaign of incessant

battering by Ukraine, sending

troop reinforcements and rear-

maments to the eastern region as

Ukraine’s Western allies scramble

to send artillery and ammunition

to its military.

Experts have said the Ukraini-

an army, assisted by able-bodied

male citizens and volunteers, has

a chance of defeating its invader

if it is adequately supplied.

Jacobs reported from New York, Bella

from Washington and Pager from

Bucharest, Romania. Adela Suliman

and Catherine Belton in London;

Andrew Jeong in Seoul; Liz Sly in

Riga, Latvia; Louisa Loveluck in

Dnipro, Ukraine; and Meryl Kornfeld,

Shane Harris and Maria Iati in

Washington, D.C., contributed to this

report.

Women, children evacuated

from Mariupol steel plant

Zelensky says 300 saved,

diplomatic efforts are

underway to free fighters

ALEXANDER ERMOCHENKO/REUTERS

Evacuees from Mariupol, Ukraine, stand outside a bus Saturday in the country’s Donetsk region.
President Volodymyr Zelensky is set to meet virtually with leaders of Group of Seven countries Sunday.

First lady Jill Biden, on a four-day trip to Eastern

Europe, was in Romania on Saturday where she

met with Ukrainian mothers and children who fled

their homes, embarking on harrowing journeys to

escape to safety. Their stories appeared to leave

Biden close to tears. She voiced concern that the

refugee crisis “keeps going on and on.”

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