Irpin Territorial Defence and Ukrainian Army soldiers hold flowers to be placed on the graves of comrades fallen during the Russian occupation, at the cemetery of Irpin, on the outskirts of Kyiv, on Sunday, May 1, 2022. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti) Irpin Territorial Defence and Ukrainian Army soldiers hold flowers to be placed on the graves of comrades fallen during the Russian occupation, at the cemetery of Irpin, on the outskirts of Kyiv, on Sunday, May 1, 2022. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti) The mother of Oleksandr Mozheiko, 31, an Irpin Territorial Defense soldier killed by Russian army, cries at his grave at the cemetery of Irpin, on the outskirts of Kyiv, on Sunday, May 1, 2022. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti) Vera Velakanova, left, and Lyudmila Vondarenko eat some food at the Kapustyanyy cemetery during the day that Ukrainians mark as the day of the dead, in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Sunday, May 1, 2022. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco) In this image released by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office on Sunday, May 1, 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, right, awards the Order of Princess Olga, the third grade, to U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, April 30, 2022. Pelosi, second in line to the presidency after the vice president, is the highest-ranking American leader to visit Ukraine since the start of the war, and her visit marks a major show of continuing support for the country's struggle against Russia. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP) A car is photographed damaged by the shrapnel of an explosion in Irpin, in the outskirt of Kyiv, Ukraine on Saturday, April 30, 2022. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti) In this image released by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office on Sunday, May 1, 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, centre right, and U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi shake hands during their meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, April 30, 2022. Pelosi, second in line to the presidency after the vice president, is the highest-ranking American leader to visit Ukraine since the start of the war, and her visit marks a major show of continuing support for the country's struggle against Russia. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP) In this image released by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office on Sunday, May 1, 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrives for his meeting with U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, April 30, 2022. Pelosi, second in line to the presidency after the vice president, is the highest-ranking American leader to visit Ukraine since the start of the war, and her visit marks a major show of continuing support for the country's struggle against Russia. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP) In this image provided by the Lviv city hall Angelina Jolie, Hollywood movie star and UNHCR goodwill ambassador, poses for photo with kids in Lviv, Ukraine, Saturday, Apr. 30, 2022. Ms Jolie was in Ukraine to meet the children affected by the war and visited hospitals and NGOs helping the injured and displaced. (Maksym Kozutsky/Lviv City Hall via AP) The body of a man lies in an apartment as Russian bombardments continue in a village recently retaken by Ukrainian forces near Kharkiv, Ukraine, Saturday, April 30, 2022. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana) Local residents close the windows of an apartment building with plywood after Russian shelling in Dobropillya, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Saturday, April 30, 2022. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka) Youngsters exercise in a public park in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Saturday, April 30, 2022. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco) People walk past wrecks of military vehicles in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, April 30, 2022. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti) Destroyed houses are photographed in Irpin, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, April 30, 2022. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti) The mother of Oleksandr Mozheiko, 31, an Irpin Territorial Defense soldier killed by Russian army, cries at his grave at the cemetery of Irpin, on the outskirts of Kyiv, on Sunday, May 1, 2022. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti) In this image released by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office on Sunday, May 1, 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, third from right, and U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, third from left, talk during their meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, April 30, 2022. Pelosi, second in line to the presidency after the vice president, is the highest-ranking American leader to visit Ukraine since the start of the war, and her visit marks a major show of continuing support for the country's struggle against Russia. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP) Oleksiy Onoschenko, 42, rescues books from his house destroyed during the Russian occupation in Irpin, in the outskirt of Kyiv, Ukraine on Saturday, April 30, 2022. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti) Russian servicemen guard an area in front of an Orthodox church in Berdyansk, in territory under the government of the Donetsk People's Republic, eastern Ukraine, Saturday, April 30, 2022. (AP Photo) Russian servicemen guard as local civilians gather to get humanitarian aid distributed by Donetsk People Republic Emergency Situations Ministry in Berdyansk, in territory under the government of the Donetsk People's Republic, eastern Ukraine, Saturday, April 30, 2022. This photo was taken during a trip organized by the Russian Ministry of Defense. (AP Photo) A resident stands inside a basement used as a bomb shelter during Russian attacks in a village recently retaken by Ukrainian forces near Kharkiv, Ukraine, Saturday, April 30, 2022. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana) In this photo taken from video, civil evacuees accompanied by Red Cross personnel walk in an area controlled by Russian-backed separatist forces in Bezimenne, about 20 kilometres (12 miles) east of Mariupol, eastern Ukraine, Saturday, April 30, 2022. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has confirmed that an evacuation is underway of civilians at a steel plant in the bombed-out city of Mariupol. Zelenskyy said on social media Sunday that a group of 100 people are on their way from Azovstal steelworks to Ukrainian-controlled territory. (AP Photo) A Russian serviceman guards an area during local civilians getting humanitarian aid distributed by Donetsk People Republic Emergency Situations Ministry in Berdyansk, in territory under the government of the Donetsk People's Republic, eastern Ukraine, Saturday, April 30, 2022. This photo was taken during a trip organized by the Russian Ministry of Defense. (AP Photo) A flag in the colors of the Ukrainian flag is waved during a May Day march in Leipzig, Germany, Sunday, May 1, 2022. (Jan Woitas/dpa via AP) Protesters march holding a banner that reads in Spanish "Russians get out from Ukraine" during a May Day demonstration in Bogota, Colombia, Sunday, May 1, 2022.(AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine (AP) — The long-awaited effort to evacuate civilians from a steel plant in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol was underway Sunday, as U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi revealed she visited Ukraine's president to show unflinching American support for the country's defense against Russian aggression.
U.N. humanitarian spokesman Saviano Abreu said the operation to bring civilians out of the sprawling Azovstal steel plant was being carried out with the International Committee of the Red Cross and in coordination with Ukrainian and Russian officials.
Video posted online by Ukrainian forces showed elderly women and mothers with small children bundled in winter clothing being helped as they climbed up a steep pile of debris from the plant's rubble, and then eventually boarding a bus.
The evacuation operation drew praise from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who said more than 100 civilians — primarily women and children — were expected to arrive in the Ukrainian-controlled city of Zaporizhzhia on Monday.
“Today, for the first time in all the days of the war, this vitally needed (humanitarian) corridor has started working,” he said in a pre-recorded address published on his Telegram channel.
Later Sunday, one of the plant’s defenders said Russian forces resumed shelling the plant as soon as the evacuation of a group of civilians was completed Sunday.
Denys Shlega, the commander of the 12th Operational Brigade of Ukraine’s National Guard, said in a televised interview Sunday night that several hundred civilians remain trapped alongside nearly 500 wounded soldiers and “numerous” dead bodies.
“Several dozen small children are still in the bunkers underneath the plant,” Shlega said. “We need one or two more rounds of evacuation.”
An aide to Mariupol’s mayor said he also had received reports of renewed shelling. “The cannonade is such that even (on the opposite side of the river) the houses are shaking," Petro Andryushenko wrote in a Telegram post.
As many as 100,000 people are believed to still be in blockaded Mariupol, including up to 1,000 civilians who were hunkered down with an estimated 2,000 Ukrainian fighters beneath the Soviet-era steel plant — the only part of the city not occupied by the Russians.
However, the fate of the Ukrainian fighters still hunkered down in the plant was not immediately clear.
Like other evacuations, success of the mission in Mariupol depended on Russia and its forces, deployed along a long series of checkpoints before reaching Ukrainian ones.
Zaporizhzhia, a city about 140 miles (230 kilometers) northwest of Mariupol, was the destination of the evacuation effort. Abreu said civilians who have been stranded for nearly two months would receive immediate humanitarian support, including psychological services.
Mariupol has seen some of the worst suffering of the war. A maternity hospital was hit with a lethal Russian airstrike in the opening weeks of the war, and about 300 people were reported killed in the bombing of a theater where civilians were taking shelter.
The Mariupol City Council said in a post on the Telegram messaging app that evacuation of civilians from other parts of the city would begin Monday morning. People fleeing Russian-occupied areas in the past have described their vehicles being fired on, and Ukrainian officials have repeatedly accused Russian forces of shelling evacuation routes on which the two sides had agreed.
A Doctors Without Borders team was at a reception center for displaced people in Zaporizhzhia, in preparation for the U.N. convoy’s arrival. Stress, exhaustion and low supplies of food were likely to have weakened the health of civilians who have been trapped underground at the plant.
Ukrainian regiment Deputy Commander Sviatoslav Palamar, meanwhile, called for the evacuation of wounded Ukrainian fighters as well as civilians. “We don’t know why they are not taken away and their evacuation to the territory controlled by Ukraine is not being discussed,” he said in a video posted Saturday on the regiment’s Telegram channel.
Video from inside the steel plant, shared with the AP by two Ukrainian women who said their husbands were among the fighters refusing to surrender there, showed men with blood-stained bandages, open wounds or amputated limbs, including some that appeared gangrenous. The AP could not independently verify the location and date of the video, which the women said was taken last week.
Meanwhile, Pelosi visited Kyiv on Saturday, the most senior American lawmaker to travel to the country since Russia's Feb. 24 invasion. Her visit came just days after Russia launched rockets at the capital during a visit by U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres.
During a Sunday news conference in the Polish city of Rzeszow, Pelosi said she and other members of a U.S. congressional delegation met with Zelenskyy and brought him “a message of appreciation from the American people for his leadership.”
Rep. Jason Crow, a U.S. Army veteran and a member of the House intelligence and armed services committees, said he came to Ukraine with three areas of focus: “Weapons, weapons and weapons.”
“We have to make sure the Ukrainians have what they need to win. What we have seen in the last two months is their ferocity, their intense pride, their ability to fight and their ability to win if they have the support to do so,” the Colorado Democrat said.
In his nightly televised address Sunday, Zelenskyy said more than 350,000 people had been evacuated from combat zones thanks to humanitarian corridors pre-agreed with Moscow since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “The organization of humanitarian corridors is one of the elements of the negotiation process (with Russia), which is ongoing,” he said. “It is very complex."
In Zaporizhzhia, residents ignored air raid sirens and warnings to shelter at home to visit cemeteries Sunday, when Ukrainians observe the Orthodox Christian day of the dead.
“If our dead could rise and see this, they would say, ‘It’s not possible, they’re worse than the Germans,’” Hennadiy Bondarenko, 61, said while marking the day with his family at a picnic table among the graves. “All our dead would join the fighting, including the Cossacks.”
Russian forces have embarked on a major military operation to seize significant parts of southern and eastern Ukraine following their failure to capture the capital, Kyiv. Mariupol, a port city on the Sea of Azov, is a key target because of its strategic location near the Crimea Peninsula, which Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014.
Russia’s high-stakes offensive has Ukrainian forces fighting village-by-village and more civilians fleeing airstrikes and artillery shelling.
Ukrainian intelligence officials accused Russian forces of seizing medical facilities to treat wounded Russian soldiers in several occupied towns, as well as “destroying medical infrastructure, taking away equipment, and leaving the population without medical care.”
In a Facebook post Sunday, the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense said that in Volchansk in the Kharkiv region, tuberculosis patients were “denied medical care and kicked out into the street” as facilities were seized to treat wounded Russian troops. It said four hospitals in Ukraine’s east were similarly “forced to service the needs of the Russian Federation,” claiming that Russian forces organized an ammunition depot at one facility near Zaporizhzhia, and prohibited staff from providing medical care to local residents. The AP could not immediately verify the accuracy of the claims.
Getting a full picture of the unfolding battle in eastern Ukraine has been difficult because airstrikes and artillery barrages have made it extremely dangerous for reporters to move around. Also, both Ukraine and Moscow-backed rebels have introduced tight restrictions on reporting from the combat zone.
But Western military analysts have suggested the offensive in the Donbas region, which includes Mariupol, was going much slower than planned. So far, Russian troops and the separatists appeared to have made only minor gains in the month since Moscow said it would focus its military strength in the east.
Hundreds of millions of dollars in military assistance has flowed into Ukraine since the war began, but Russia’s vast armories mean Ukraine will continue to require huge amounts of support.
With plenty of firepower still in reserve, Russia’s offensive still could intensify and overrun the Ukrainians. Overall the Russian army has an estimated 900,000 active-duty personnel, and a much larger air force and navy.
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Fisch reported from Sloviansk. Associated Press journalists Jon Gambrell and Yuras Karmanau in Lviv, Mstyslav Chernov in Kharkiv, Lolita C. Baldor in Washington, Trisha Thompson in Rome and AP staff around the world contributed to this report.
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Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
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