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Russia-Ukraine war: Russia attacks Azovstal plant after first civilians evacuated from steel works reach safety – live

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Russia launches ‘powerful assault’ on steelworks plant with trapped civilians

Russia has launched an attack on the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol, Ukraine, after a ceasefire broke down, Reuters reports.

Speaking on Telegram, Capt Sviatoslav Palamar of the Azov regiment said the steelworks where 200 civilians remain trapped underground was being targeted by artillery and planes, according to Reuters.

Palamar said two civilians were killed and 10 injured. He said:

As of this moment, a powerful assault on the territory of the Azovstal plant is under way with the support of armoured vehicles, tanks, attempts to land on boats and a large number of infantry.”

The reports could not be independently verified.

Smoke rises above a plant of Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol
Smoke rises above a plant of Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol.
Photograph: Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters

According to Mariupol’s mayor, Vadym Boichenko, more than 200 civilians remain in the Azovstal steel plant, Reuters reports.

The five-day operation to evacuate women, children and the elderly from the steelworks was coordinated by the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

One of the evacuees, Alina Kozitskaya, who spent weeks sheltering in a basement, told Reuters:

I can’t believe I made it, we just want rest.”

A Slovak company will repair damaged Ukrainian military equipment following a request from Kyiv, the defence ministry said on Tuesday, and Agence France-Presse is reporting.

The state-run Konstrukta-Defence firm has “concluded a contract with the Ukrainian side on repairing and modernising Ukrainian military technology,” defence ministry spokeswoman Martina Koval Kakascikova said.

The first lot will consist of dozens of BRDM-2 armoured reconnaissance vehicles.

A Ukranian armored scout car BRDM-2 in Kyiv.
A Ukranian armored scout car BRDM-2 in Kyiv. Photograph: Fadel Senna/AFP/Getty Images

Slovak Prime Minister Eduard Heger and Defence Minister Jaroslav Nad earlier declared their willingness to help Ukraine with damaged weaponry.

We were asked by Ukraine whether our companies would be able to repair damaged Ukrainian equipment. That is, the damaged equipment would come to Slovakia, we would repair it and the equipment would return to Ukraine,” Nad has said in early April.

Based in Lieskovec in eastern Slovakia, Konstrukta-Defence repairs vehicles and military technology of all categories used by Slovak armed forces, according to the company’s website.

The company also produces self-propelled gun howitzers.

This is Joanna Walters taking over the blog in New York, as the Guardian’s London team has now handed the baton to the US team.

A damaged Russian MSTA-S 2S19 self-propelled howitzer is seen in Trostianets, Sumy region, Ukraine March 28, 2022.
A damaged Russian MSTA-S 2S19 self-propelled howitzer is seen in Trostianets, Sumy region, Ukraine March 28, 2022. Photograph: Reuters

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is inflicting damage to the country’s infrastructure at a cost of $4.5bn (£3.6bn) a week, the Guardian’s Richard Partington reports.

The snapshot shows that the bulk of the infrastructure costs relate to bomb damage inflicted on buildings, roads, factories and businesses, based estimates compiled by the Kyiv School of Economics and supported by the Ukrainian government.

Read more here:

That’s it from me, Geneva Abdul. My colleague Joanna Walters will be with you shortly.

Explosions have been reported in Lviv on Tuesday evening, according to the city’s mayor.

On Twitter, Andriy Sadovyi, advised people to stay in bomb shelters. He later tweeted that parts of the city were experiencing power outages.

❗️❗️Explosions in Lviv.
Please stay in the bomb shelters!❗️❗️

— Андрій Садовий (@AndriySadovyi) May 3, 2022

Ukrainian MP pushes back against Boris Johnson’s ‘finest hour’ remark

Echoing the words of Winston Churchill virtually at the Verkhovna Rada, Johnson described Ukraine’s resistance as: “finest hour, that will be remembered and recounted for generations to come”.

While his remarks were met with a standing ovation, Inna Sovsun, the deputy leader of the Holos party told the PA news agency that while the speech gave them “hope” she contested Johnson’s description:

I don’t know if the definition of ‘finest’ is supposed to be something nice and beautiful – certainly it doesn’t feel like that. It will probably be a glorious time described in history textbooks (and) reading about them is probably nice but living through them is hell, frankly speaking.

But what we definitely understand and what we agree is this is a historic moment … when the nation is being transformed and reborn as a different type of nation. If that is the definition of the finest hour that could be it – but again, living through that is not something you’ll want for your children.”

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy applauds Boris Johnson during a session at Ukraine’s parliament in Kyiv.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy applauds Boris Johnson during a session at Ukraine’s parliament in Kyiv. Photograph: AP

Sovsun added that while Johnson was speaking Russian forces had stormed a steelworks in the besieged city of Mariupol.

The EU sanctions intent on breaking “the Russian war machine” are now imminent, the president of the European Council has said, as Germany pivoted to back the move.

A proposal to phase in a prohibition on Russian oil imports will be discussed by member state ambassadors in Brussels on Wednesday, with the most dependent, such as Slovakia and Hungary, seeking exemptions.

Russia accounts for about 25% of oil imports to the EU, although the level of dependency varies between member states. The German government signalled this weekend that it believes it can completely phase out its use “by the late summer”.

Hungary’s foreign minister, Péter Szijjártó, said Budapest could not support sanctions:

The point is simple: that Hungary’s energy supply cannot be endangered, because no one can expect us to allow the price of the war [in Ukraine] to be paid by Hungarians.”

Read more from my colleagues Daniel Boffey, Jennifer Rankin and Philip Oltermann here:

Summary

It is 7.30pm on Tuesday in Kyiv, and here is a quick catchup of where things stand:

  • At least 10 people have died and 15 been wounded after Russian forces shelled a coke plant in the city of Avdiivka, in eastern Ukraine.
  • Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, has passed a law that bans political parties that justify, recognise or deny Russia’s armed aggression against Ukraine.
  • Putin told Macron “western countries could help stop the crimes of the Ukrainian military”. Putin is also reported to have told Macron about the Russian approach to negotiations with Kyiv.
  • Russia has launched an attack on the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol, Ukraine, where 200 civilians remain trapped underground.
  • The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said that a convey of civilians evacuated from the Azovstal steel plant in besieged Mariupol has reached Zaporizhzhia.
  • Germany’s opposition leader has travelled to Kyiv to meet Ukrainian officials, after the country’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, made clear he would not be visiting Ukraine any time soon.
  • Addressing the Ukrainian parliament virtually on Tuesday, Boris Johnson said “Ukraine will win” against Russia, and “will be free”. Johnson was the first world leader to address the Verkhovna Rada since the conflict began.
  • Moscow accused Israel of backing the “neo-Nazi regime in Kyiv”. The remarks are the latest in Russia’s diplomatic row with Israel, after the Kremlin’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said on Monday that Adolf Hitler “had Jewish blood”.
  • Putin ordered retaliatory sanctions against the west. The names of individuals or entities affected by the measures are not included on the document.

Russia’s war in Ukraine.

As people filtered back to Kyiv after Russian troops abandoned their attempts to seize it, tattoo artists noticed an increasing demand for art that paid tribute to the tragedy and violence of the spring, and to Ukraine’s spirit of resistance.

A young girl in Kyiv sports a tattoo on her ankle of a man throwing a Molotov cocktail with an stylised Ukraine coat of arms as a flame.
A young girl in Kyiv sports a tattoo of a man throwing a Molotov cocktail with an stylised Ukraine coat of arms as a flame. Photograph: Alessio Mamo/The Guardian

Mariika, a tattoo artist who now has an anti-tank hedgehog on her leg and a molotov cocktail on her arm, said:

I wanted to capture this moment.”

For several Saturdays she has joined a group of tattoo artists in a Kyiv party district for a fundraising day at a nightclub, currently out of action because of the war and curfew.

Already, they have raised more than 100,000 hryvnia (£2,700) for the army.

Tattoo marathon in Kyiv where funds were raised for Ukrainian army.
Ukrainians take part in a tattoo marathon in Kyiv to raise funds for the army. Photograph: Alessio Mamo/The Guardian

Read more from my colleague Emma Graham-Harrison here:

Ten killed and 15 wounded by Russian shelling in Donetsk

At least 10 people have died and 15 been wounded after Russian forces shelled a coke plant in the city of Avdiivka, in eastern Ukraine, Reuters reports.

On Twitter, the governor of Donetsk, Pavlo Kyrylenko, said:

Russians knew exactly where to hit – workers just finished the shift and waited for a bus.”

Russia has previously denied targeting civilians.

At least 10 killed,15 injured – aftermath of russian shelling of Avdiivka coke plant.Number of casualties still can rise.
Russians knew exactly where to hit–workers just finished the shift and waited for a bus.
Russians will pay for their crimes!#RussiaKillsCivilians#StopRussia

— Павло Кириленко (@Pavlo_Kyrylenko) May 3, 2022

Ukraine’s prosecutor general, Iryna Venediktova, has accused Russia of using rape as a war tactic, and described president Vladimir Putin as “the main war criminal of the 21st century”.

While visiting the city of Irpin, Venediktova said Ukraine was collecting information on allegations of rape, torture and other suspected war crimes from women, men and children by Russian forces, Reuters reports.

She said:

This is, of course, to scare civil society … to do everything to [force Ukraine to] capitulate.”

Ukraine’s prosecutor general Venediktova holds a news briefing in Irpin, outside Kyiv, Ukraine.
Ukraine’s prosecutor general Iryna Venediktova holds a news briefing in Irpin, outside Kyiv. Photograph: Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters

She added that some of the victims remaining in Ukraine fear speaking out, afraid of the return of Russian forces.

The Kremlin has previously denied war crime allegations against its forces, as well as suggestions that Putin is a war criminal.

Earlier today, Boris Johnson said “Ukraine will win” against Russia and “will be free”, during a virtual address to a packed Ukrainian parliament to standing ovations.

Watch the address here:

‘Ukraine will win’: Boris Johnson addresses Ukrainian parliament to standing ovation – video

Ukraine passes law banning activities of pro-Russian political parties

Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, has passed a law that bans political parties who justify, recognise or deny Russia’s armed aggression against Ukraine, according to the Interfax news agency.

The law will also ban parties who glorify or justify the actions of those carrying out armed aggression against Ukraine.

Taking to Telegram, the head of the Servant of the People political party Olena Shuliak, said:

Finally, we will stop tolerating our politicum ‘Russian peace’, which brings only destruction in Ukraine.”

She said the decision was supported by 330 votes.

A 12-year-old orphan from Mariupol, who ended up in Russian-controlled Donetsk after being injured in a blast that killed her father, has been reunited with her grandfather.

Before leaving hospital on Tuesday, Kira Obedinsky was visited by Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who gave her an iPad.

Alexsandr Obedinsky, 67, said that it’s a moment his young granddaughter will treasure forever:

She couldn’t believe it was happening to her. All of us need positive emotions now, and so does Kira.”

Kira Obedinsky’s hospital visitors included Ukraine’s deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk.
Kira Obedinsky’s hospital visitors included Ukraine’s deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk. Photograph: Family handout

The Guardian highlighted Kira’s plight in early April and a week later Ukraine’s deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk called Alexsandr on his mobile phone.

Read more from my colleague Daniel Boffey here:

Russia launches ‘powerful assault’ on steelworks plant with trapped civilians

Russia has launched an attack on the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol, Ukraine, after a ceasefire broke down, Reuters reports.

Speaking on Telegram, Capt Sviatoslav Palamar of the Azov regiment said the steelworks where 200 civilians remain trapped underground was being targeted by artillery and planes, according to Reuters.

Palamar said two civilians were killed and 10 injured. He said:

As of this moment, a powerful assault on the territory of the Azovstal plant is under way with the support of armoured vehicles, tanks, attempts to land on boats and a large number of infantry.”

The reports could not be independently verified.

Smoke rises above a plant of Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol
Smoke rises above a plant of Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol.
Photograph: Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters

According to Mariupol’s mayor, Vadym Boichenko, more than 200 civilians remain in the Azovstal steel plant, Reuters reports.

The five-day operation to evacuate women, children and the elderly from the steelworks was coordinated by the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

One of the evacuees, Alina Kozitskaya, who spent weeks sheltering in a basement, told Reuters:

I can’t believe I made it, we just want rest.”



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