Conflicts continued in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region Friday as holdouts in the besieged city of Mariupol continued to look for evacuation routes.
In Kyiv, residents continued to take stock after a Thursday missile strike shook the relative calm in the capital city. The strike damaged at least one large residential building and killed Vira Hyrych, a journalist who worked for the U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe.
Here are some key developments from Ukrainian cities and contested regions:
Kyiv: Russia on Friday confirmed it launched five missiles that struck the capital city late Thursday, reportedly striking an arms factory and at least one residential building.
The attack came as U.N. Secretary General António Guterres was visiting the capital, which only recently has begun to show signs of a return to normal following heavy airstrikes at the start of the invasion in late February.
Mariupol: An area surrounding the Azovstal steel plant remained under heavy tank fire as Ukrainian forces and civilians cling to their last stronghold in the strategic southern port city.
Mykhailo Vershynin, the chief of the Donetsk region patrol police, told The Post that the area surrounding the Azovstal field hospital is still being bombarded at a time when officials have called for a planned evacuation from the steel plant in the besieged port city. The area is reeling after another significant air raid by Russian Tu-22M3 bombers, he said.
Ukrainian officials have accused Russian forces of blocking the evacuation of Azovstal via relentless airstrikes, and reported an increasingly dire situation inside the plant as food and water supplies dwindle and civilians remain in need of medical care.
“We are ready to leave the territory of the Azovstal plant,” Vershynin said. “But this requires guarantees.”
Elsewhere in the Donbas region: Russian forces continue to press on the Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts, but their slow progress has come at a high cost in the face of strong resistance from Ukrainian forces, the British Defense Ministry said in a Friday intelligence update.
Fighting has been heaviest in the Luhansk oblast cities of Lysychansk and Severodonetsk, where Russian troops have attempted to advance south from Izyum in an apparent pincer movement aimed at encircling Ukrainian forces, the ministry said.
Tim Bella, Andrew Jeong and David Stern contributed to this report.