Photo: AP/Shutterstock

Smoke rises from the Metallurgical Combine Azovstal in Mariupol, in territory under the government of the Donetsk People’s Republic, eastern in Mariupol, Ukraine, . Heavy fighting is raging at the besieged steel plant in Mariupol as Russian forces attempt to finish off the city’s last-ditch defenders and complete the capture of the strategically vital port Russia, Mariupol, Ukraine

“The Supreme Military Command ordered the commanders of the units stationed at Azovstal to save the lives of their personnel,” the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said. “Mariupol defenders are heroes of our time.”

EyePress News/Shutterstock

Image from drone footage released by the Azov Regiment on May 5, 2022 shows flame billows and smoke rises from the Azovstal steel plant as the assault on plant continues. Hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians remain in the complex. The plant is under heavy fire as Russia forces uses aircraft, artillery and infantry to storm the last holdout of the Ukrainian forces in the southern port city of Mariupol.

In a statement, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the evaluation of the steel plant is being completed to save lives of the fighters who endured weeks of Russian attacks.

“Ukraine needs Ukrainian heroes to be alive. It’s our principle,” he said, according toCBS News. “The work to bring the guys home continues, and it requires delicacy and time.”

Ukraine Minister for the Reintegration Irina Vereshchuk said a prisoner exchange will occur for the soldiers, according to USA Today.

The Kremlin said the end of the combat mission was a mass surrender. In a video from Russian Defense Ministry, troops can be seen patting down and searching the fighters, according toUSA Today.

Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of the lower house of the Russian parliament, said he believes there are “war criminals” among the evacuated troops and they should face prosecution, the outlet reported.

It remains unknown how many troops remain at the steel plant.

Earlier this month, wives of the trapped Ukrainian soldiersspoke outabout the situtation in an interview withThe New York Times.

“They are really on the last breath,” Kateryna Prokopenko said of the fighters, which include her husband, Lt. Col. Denys Prokopenko.

“The whole world is advising them to surrender without understanding that it means death for them,” Yulia Fedosiuk, whose husband Sgt. Arseniy Fedosiuk is also among those under the sprawling factory, said.

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Russia’sattack on Ukrainecontinues after their forces launched a large-scale invasion on Feb. 24 — the first major land conflict in Europe in decades.

Nearly 6 million have fled the country as refugees — and half are children,according to the United Nations. Millions more have been displaced inside Ukraine.

With NATO forces amassed in the region, various countries are offering aid or military support to the resistance. Zelenskyy has called for peace talks — so far unsuccessful — while urging his country to fight back.

Putin insists Ukraine has historic ties to Russia and he is acting in the best security interests of his country. Zelenskyy vowed not to bend.

“Nobody is going to break us, we’re strong, we’re Ukrainians,“he told the European Unionin a speech in the early days of the fighting, adding, “Life will win over death. And light will win over darkness.”

source: people.com