UN Seeks More Evacuations From Wartorn Mariupol
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
MARIUPOL/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – The United Nations tried Friday to secure the evacuation of at least hundreds of civilians trapped at the Azovstal steelworks in Ukraine’s bombed-out city Mariupol.
Several thousand Ukrainian fighters were also believed to be inside the extensive tunnel network of the plant, with military sources saying Russian troops were attacking the area.
In Russia, President Vladimir Putin again said the last fighters holding out at the steelworks should surrender.
Taking the city of Mariupol in its entirety would be a symbolic win for the Kremlin ahead of its annual May 9 Victory Day over Nazi Germany.
Late Tuesday, the U.N. said there would be another attempt at evacuating civilians from the city on Friday, while international donors pledged $6.5 billion in aid for Ukraine at a conference held in Warsaw, Poland.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky addressed the event by video from Kyiv and said the money was needed to support Ukrainians now and for the future reconstruction of the country.
HUNGARY WORRIED
Neighboring Hungary, which declined military support, pledged 37 million euros ($39 million) in humanitarian aid, including opening its hospitals for injured Ukrainian soldiers and children.
The Hungarian government also made clear it had a moral responsibility to people in Ukraine’s Transcarpathia region, where up to 200,000 ethnic Hungarians live, after a missile strike on a train station there.
The Russian strike, in which no causalities were reported, heightened concerns that more refugees would enter Hungary. Authorities some 670,000 people fleeing the conflict had already passed through Hungary.
Separately, Ukraine’s president’s adviser said Ukraine is unlikely to launch a counter-offensive against Russia before mid-June because of a lack of weapons.
Yet even the president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko – one of Vladimir Putin’s closest allies – said he hadn’t expected the war in Ukraine to “drag on this way.”
Despite a claimed lack of weapons, Ukrainian forces have shown more resistance than Moscow expected, Western officials say.
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