Russia-Ukraine war live updates: Evacuation convoy rushes to Mariupol; U.S. intel helped sink Moskva warship
Heavy fighting continues at the besieged Azovstal Iron and Steel Works in Mariupol, where Russian forces are intensifying their attack. The United Nations Secretary General António Guterres confirmed nearly 500 civilians had been evacuated from the plant and its surroundings in recent days as a U.N. aid convoy is due to arrive in the shattered port city Friday. In his nightly video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russian shelling of the steel plant was not stopping, and described the situation as “hell” for the “many children who are still there.”
The United States provided intelligence that helped the Ukrainian military sink the Moskva, a Russian Black Sea fleet flagship, U.S. officials told The Washington Post. The attack, one of the most dramatic Ukrainian battlefield successes of the war, was a significant blow to Russia’s naval capacity. A U.S. official said the United States did not know of the strike in advance, but said Washington had shared maritime information with Kyiv.
On the battlefield, the governor of the Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine described the situation there as “continuous horror,” accusing Russian forces on Friday of damaging homes and a chemical plant. Ukrainian forces have shifted to counterattacks in the cities of Kharkiv and Izyum, with ongoing heavy clashes in the east, according to Gen. Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Ukraine’s top military officer. Ukraine is “putting up a very stiff resistance,” though Russian forces are making incremental progress in Donbas, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters Thursday.
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