Ukraine news – live: More than 260 Azovstal defenders evacuated from Mariupol plant
The evacuation of Ukrainian defenders from Mariupol’s Azovstal steelworks has been confirmed by Kyiv’s defence ministry and president Volodymyr Zelensky.
According to deputy defence minister Hannah Maylar, 53 seriously injured personnel have been taken to the town of Novoazovsk which is under the control of Russia-backed separatists.
Ms Maylar said a further 211 people were evacuated from the sprawling plant via a humanitarian corridor to Olenivka.
She later tweeted that the Ukrainian defenders were exchanged for captured Russian soldiers, referring to the latter as “captured racists”.
Ms Maylar’s reports have since been backed up by president Zelensky, who in his nightly address added: “We hope that we will be able to save the lives of our guys.”
It followed witness accounts that five buses and an armoured personnel carrier carrying Ukraine’s servicemen from the vast plant arrived late on Monday in Novoazovsk.
A witness claimed a number of the evacuees were carried out of the buses on stretchers and transported into a hospital.
