Ukraine and Russia: What you need to know right now

FIGHTING, CIVILIANS * Five buses and an armoured personnel carrier carrying Ukraine's servicemen from the besieged Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol arrived in Russia-controlled Novoazovsk. "We hope that we will be able to save the lives of our guys," President Zelenskiy said. * Ukraine said troops defending its second-largest city, Kharkiv, had repelled Russian forces and advanced as far as the border with Russia.


Reuters | Kyiv | Updated: 17-05-2022 03:20 IST | Created: 17-05-2022 03:18 IST
Ukraine and Russia: What you need to know right now
Representative Image Image Credit: Snappy Goat
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The force holed up in the last Ukrainian stronghold in the besieged port of Mariupol began evacuating, appearing to cede control of the city to Russia after months of bombardment. FIGHTING, CIVILIANS

* Five buses and an armoured personnel carrier carrying Ukraine's servicemen from the besieged Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol arrived in Russia-controlled Novoazovsk. A Ukraine official said 53 evacuees were taken to hospital and 211 via a corridor to another site. * Ukraine's military said it continued efforts to rescue fighters at the Azovstal factory and that they had fulfilled their combat mission. "We hope that we will be able to save the lives of our guys," President Zelenskiy said.

* Ukraine said troops defending its second-largest city, Kharkiv, had repelled Russian forces and advanced as far as the border with Russia. Reuters could not immediately verify Ukraine's battlefield account. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy hailed the achievement and thanked the troops. * Nine civilians were killed by Russian attacks in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region, the region's governor said. Reuters was not able to independently verify the report.

* Ukraine's Kalush Orchestra returned home after an emotional Eurovision Song Contest victory. Frontman Oleh Psiuk said he hoped to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for the war effort by selling the Eurovision trophy. DIPLOMACY

* Vladimir Putin said there was no threat to Russia if Sweden and Finland joined NATO - the war's biggest strategic consequence so far. But the Russian president's unexpectedly calm reaction came with a warning that Moscow would respond to any military build-up in the alliance's new Nordic members. * EU foreign ministers failed in their effort to pressure Hungary to lift its veto of a proposed oil embargo on Russia.

ECONOMY * McDonald's Corp, whose arrival in Russia was an emblem of the Cold War's end, said it would sell all its restaurants there.

* Renault said it would sell its majority stake in carmaker Avtovaz to a Russian science institute, reportedly for just one rouble, with a six-year option to buy it back. QUOTES

* "It is terrifying that St Petersburg and the Leningrad region will be so close to NATO's bases," said St Petersburg resident Natalia Vostrikova. * "They are in hell. They receive new wounds every day. They are without legs or arms, exhausted, without medicines." Natalia Zaritskaya, wife of a member of the Azov Battalion, describes conditions at the steel works.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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