Russia’s defeat is ‘obvious to everyone in the world,’ says Zelenskyy
As Ukraine continues to fight off Russian forces, the first war crimes trial of a Russian soldier began in Kyiv.
Damien Henderson, USA TODAY
A contingent of Ukrainian fighters who doggedly defended a steel mill in Mariupol for weeks have “fulfilled its combat mission,” Ukrainian officials said, and efforts were underway to evacuate the last of the group.
“The Supreme Military Command ordered the commanders of the units stationed at Azovstal to save the lives of their personnel,” the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said in a statement. “Mariupol defenders are heroes of our time.”
More than 260 Ukrainian troops were evacuated to areas controlled by Russian-backed separatists. The Kremlin called the exodus a mass surrender. Russian Defense Ministry video shows troops patting down and searching the fighters. Some were on stretchers as they were loaded onto the buses.
Ukraine Minister for the Reintegration Irina Vereshchuk said a prisoner exchange will take place for the more than 50 wounded soldiers when their condition stabilizes. More than 200 other fighters were evacuated through a humanitarian corridor, she said. Hundreds of prisoners from both sides have been exchanged since the war began Feb. 24.
An unknown number of troops remained at the Azovstal steel plant that sprawls across 4 square miles. The plant has symbolized Ukraine’s final holdout in the besieged city.
“The work to bring the guys home continues, and it requires delicacy and time,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
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Latest developments:
►The Vatican’s foreign minister, Archbishop Paul Gallagher, arrives in Kyiv on Wednesday for a meeting Friday with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba. The Vatican is trying to salvage newly improved ties with the Russian Orthodox Church while offering support to the “martyred” Ukrainian faithful.
►After over 200 years as a nonaligned nation, Sweden will join neighboring Finland in applying for membership in NATO. Russian President Vladimir Putin said the move would make little difference since both countries have been aligned with NATO – but warned that “the expansion of military infrastructure onto this territory will of course give rise to our reaction in response.”
A retired Russian colonel broke from the Kremlin narrative of the war in Ukraine this week, warning on Russian TV that as the West ramps up its arms deliveries “a million armed Ukrainian soldiers needs to be viewed as a reality of the very near future.” Thus the Russian’s military struggles are likely to “frankly, get worse,” Mikhail Khodaryonok said.
Khodaryonok said Russia faced “full geopolitical isolation.” The Russian TV host, Olga Skabeyeva, known as the “Iron doll of Putin TV” for her fiercely pro-Kremlin takes, suggested that the isolation was only from the West. But Khodaryonok said support from China and India was not as unconditional as the support Ukraine was receiving from the U.S. and its allies.
“Virtually the entire world is against us,” he said, as translated by the BBC’s Francis Scarr. “And it’s that situation that we need to get out of.”
Khodaryonok also dismissed claims that the Ukraine military includes relatively few professional soldiers and was suffering from low morale.
“A desire to protect one’s homeland, in the sense that it exists in Ukraine, it really does exist there,” he said. “They intend to fight until the last man.”
Hundreds of Ukraine fighters who held on for weeks at the Azovstal steel plant were able to keep Russia from shifting up to 20,000 personnel to other locations in Ukraine, the Ukrainian military said in a statement. That gave the military “the opportunity to prepare and create the defensive frontiers on which our troops are still present today,” the statement said.
“We got the critically needed time to build reserves, regroup forces, and get help from partners,” the statement said.
The most important joint task of all Ukraine and the whole world is to save the lives of Mariupol defenders, the statement added: “We will fight for you on all fronts as devotedly as you defend the country.”
The Senate voted 89-11 late Monday to advance a $40 billion bill aiding Ukraine, likely sending the measure to President Joe Biden to sign into law by the end of the week.
The chamber invoked cloture, capping further debate on the bill and setting up a final vote that will likely be scheduled for later this week. Eleven Republicans voted against the measure, including Kentucky’s Rand Paul, who delayed its quick approval by denying the unanimous agreement needed to begin debate.
Contributing: The Associated Press
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