According to Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk, all women, children, and the elderly have been evacuated from the Azovstal steel plant, the last holdout against Russian forces in the besieged city of Mariupol.
The Sentinel-Record reports soldiers and civilians are still present at the plant, where fighters are making their final stand to prevent Moscow from completely seizing the strategically crucial port city.
According to a British defense ministry intelligence briefing on Saturday, the war in Ukraine is also taking a “heavy toll” on some of Russia’s most capable units and advanced capabilities.
President Zelenskyy took to his official Telegram account on May 7 to decry the “barbarism” being committed by the Russian military in Odesa.
“Today, the invaders launched a missile strike on Odesa,” he said, “in a city where almost every street has something memorable, something historical. But for the Russian army, it doesn’t matter. They would only kill and destroy. Odesa? Kharkiv region? Donbas? They do not care.”
Zelenskyy said. “Only the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the resistance of our people can stop this inhuman invasion. It’s barbarism that has rockets but has nothing to do with people. Such actions of the Russian occupiers, and especially on the eve of the Day of Remembrance of All Victims of World War II and the Day of Victory over Nazism, should remind every state and every nation that it is impossible to defeat evil once and for all.”
Zelenskyy added, “Last night, the Russian army fired a rocket to destroy the Hryhoriy Skovoroda Museum in Kharkiv region. A rocket… To destroy the museum. Every day of this war, the Russian army does something that is beyond words. But every next day they do something that makes you feel it in a new way.”
Meanwhile, CNN reports U.S. President Joe Biden will attend a virtual meeting of the Group of Seven world leaders on Sunday, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as a guest.