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Ukrainian authorities braced for an expected intensification of Russian attacks alee of the Victory Day holiday on May nine, while officials on both sides said the civilian evacuation of a besieged steel factory in Mariupol had been completed, although the fate of the remaining fighters in that location is unclear.

Ukrainian officials declared on May 7 that all women, children, and elderly people had been evacuated from the massive Azovstal steel found that has been under attack for weeks past Russian forces among the ruins of the port urban center.

"The President's order has been carried out: All women, children, and the elderly accept been evacuated from Azovstal," Deputy Prime Government minister Iryna Vereshchuk said in a statement on social media.

"This part of the Mariupol humanitarian mission has been completed," she added without elaborating.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy later said that a "second phase" of the evacuation would now take place, with the wounded and medical personnel beingness accept out.

He said work would go along on May 8 to secure on all humanitarian corridors to allow those in and around the urban center who desire to leave to get a way out. He added that Kyiv was attempting to get the final fighters out of the steel found, only that it "was extremely difficult."

Fears are ascent that a concluding, bloody showdown between the Ukrainian fighters and Russian troops could ignite if the defenders are not allowed to be evacuated from the factory.

The evacuation of the Azovstal steel mill intensified over the past ii days, even as Russia has connected to batter the facility and the strategic metropolis, which is now mainly in ruins.

Russia is seeking to consummate its takeover of the region and build a land bridge between Crimea -- which it illegally annexed in 2014 – and territory controlled by Moscow-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.

Mariupol has taken the worst of the fighting in Ukraine since Russian troops were forced to retreat effectually Kyiv and other cities in the north.

Earlier the weekend, an estimated 200 civilians had been hiding within the massive steel plant along with an estimated two,000 Ukrainian defenders.

The United nations and the International Commission of the Red Cross have desperately been attempting to organize evacuations from the site.

Russian officials also later issued a statement saying that the civilian evacuation of the steel plant had been completed.

The fate of the fighters remains unclear.

Russia, meanwhile, claimed its Iskander missiles destroyed a Ukrainian enshroud of weaponry that had been supplied by the United States and Europe and that loftier-precision missiles had destroyed Ukrainian aircraft at airfields in the Artsyz, Odesa, and Voznesensk regions.

Oleskiy Arestovych, a top adviser to Zelenskiy, claimed on May 7 that Ukraine had fabricated battleground advances in the east, just two days before Russia holds ceremonies to marking Victory Day, the ceremony of the defeat of Nazi Germany.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's speech on May nine will be closely watched to see if he volition announce a general mobilization or some other major strategic shift, in a bid to turn the tide of the war, now in its 73rd day.

The top human being rights representative of the Quango of Europe has deplored Moscow's actions in its invasion, saying that every Ukrainian who has suffered human rights violations at Russian hands deserves justice.

"Each of them deserves justice and must non exist forgotten," Dunja Mijatovic said in a statement following a iv-twenty-four hours visit to Kyiv, adding that the extent of homo rights violations was "staggering."

In the early on weeks subsequently the Feb 24 invasion, Russian forces were thwarted in their attempts to seize Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, suffering heavy losses of personnel and equipment. Commanders so later withdrew units from areas near Kyiv and repositioned them to the Donbas.

Russia's last official tally of its war machine deaths was i,351. Western officials, however, say the price is at least fifteen,000, and Ukrainian officials claim the tally exceeds 20,000. Zelenskiy said final month that between two,500 to three,000 Ukrainian troops have been killed, though that figure is believed to be an undercount.

Ukraine'southward General Staff, meanwhile, said in its daily assessment that Russian activity was relatively serenity overnight, express to military reconnaissance and artillery burn.

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Near Izyum, where there has been major back-and-forth fighting, drones were repeatedly detected overflying defense positions, the report said. Kharkiv was also striking by artillery.

Kherson, which is located north of Crimea, well outside of the Donbas, has been contested for weeks now, though Russian forces have claimed control of the region'southward main urban center, and a acme Russian politician visited Kherson city on May half dozen.

Russia's Defense Ministry said on May 6 that its forces were continuing to advance on positions in the Donbas, and had destroyed an ammunition depot in Kramatorsk and shot down 2 Ukrainian warplanes.

On May vii, the ministry said its forces hit 18 Ukrainian military facilities overnight, including three armament depots almost the port city of Odesa. Information technology also said Russian forces destroyed a stockpile of military equipment from the United States and European countries most a railway station in the Kharkiv region.

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov was quoted by Russian media as saying that "a heavy concentration of weapons and combat hardware delivered from the U.S. and Western countries, equally well as armed services personnel of the 58th Mechanized Infantry Brigade of Ukraine's armed forces, take been eliminated with Iskander operational-tactical missile systems" virtually railway stations in the Kharkiv region.

It wasn't articulate what the weaponry was exactly, or when it might have been delivered and the claims could not be independently confirmed.

Ukrainian military officials confirmed on May seven that at least four Russian cruise missiles had been fired into the Odesa region and the city'south main airport. Local officials said a curfew would be set up in the region from x p.chiliad. on May 8 until 5 a.m. on May 9.

Ukraine'southward successes against Russian forces have been due in large part to the major supplies of weaponry provided by the U.s.a. and Europe-- weaponry that increasingly includes offensive armaments like heavy arms, howitzers, and tanks.

Russian federation has repeatedly warned NATO that its weapons supply convoys could be targeted, only has then far not taken whatever steps to do that.

Russian forces had been closing in on the last contingent of Ukrainian troops holding out at the sprawling Azovstal steel works factory'south extensive tunnels and bunkers in the port urban center of Mariupol.

Ukrainian officials said on May 6 that several dozen civilians were evacuated from Azovstal, while at to the lowest degree another l reportedly left early on May 7 before Vereshchuk'southward proclamation that all women, children, and the elderly had left the site.

Separately, the Ukrainian military said on May 7 that it had destroyed a Russian landing ship near Snake Isle in the Black Sea, hitting information technology with an armed drone. There was no immediate comment from Russian federation.

In mid-April, Russia'south Black Sea Fleet flagship, the Moskva, sank virtually Snake Island after existence hitting by what was believed to accept been a Ukrainian missile. Russia denies a missile strike, maxim but that a fire onboard caused the ship to sink.

For the first time since the invasion, the UN Security Council approved a brief resolution expressing "deep concern" near the situation in Ukraine.

However, the text, which was adopted on May 6 with Russia's vote, did not mention a "war," "disharmonize," or "invasion" -- as many council members call Russia's military action -- or a "special military operation" as Moscow refers to it.

"The Security Quango expresses deep concern regarding the maintenance of peace and security of Ukraine," it read.

With reporting past AP and dpa