Kyiv: evacuation from Azovstal continues

Kyiv says that the evacuation process from the Azovstal steel plant continues after 83 days of bombardment, while Russian Duma Speaker says that Azov regiment fighters must not be subject to swap. 

“Nazi criminals should not be subject to swap, we should do everything we can to bring them to justice,” Vyacheslav Volodin said on Tuesday. 

Ukraine’s deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar said late on Monday that 53 heavily wounded soldiers were evacuated to a hospital in the Russian-controlled town of Novoazovsk, while more  than 200 others were transported through a corridor to Olenivka. 

Kyiv stated that the soldiers defending the steel plant had “performed their combat duties” and now the key goal was to save their lives. 

It was unclear how many soldiers are still  in the l plant, but Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, pledged: “We hope to save the lives of our boys”.