Ukraine War Highlights: 'Putin could make the choice to end it,' US President Joe Biden tweets

The evacuation of the besieged Azovstal steel plant in the port city of Mariupol has started, with an initial group of 100 civilians en route to Ukrainian-held territory, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday.

"Evacuation of civilians from Azovstal began. The 1st group of about 100 people is already heading to the controlled area. Tomorrow we'll meet them in Zaporizhzhia," he tweeted, referring to a city 220 kilometres (130 miles) to the northwest.

US President Joe Biden on Sunday tweeted from his personal Twitter handle that Russian President Vladimir Putin could make the choice to end the war just as he chose to launch this brutal invasion. "Russia is the aggressor, and the world must and will hold Russia accountable," Biden tweeted. Also read

The United Nations has confirmed that an operation to evacuate people from a steel plant in the bombed-out Ukrainian city of Mariupol is underway.

UN humanitarian spokesman Saviano Abreu told The Associated Press on Sunday that the effort to bring people out of sprawling Azovstal steel plant was being done in collaboration with the International Committee for the Red Cross and in coordination with Ukrainian and Russian officials.

The European Union is leaning towards a ban on imports of Russian oil by the end of the year, two EU diplomats said, after talks between the European Commission and EU member states this weekend.

A group of around 40 civilians arrived on Sunday at a temporary accommodation centre after leaving the area around the Azovstal steel plant in Ukraine's Mariupol, a Reuters photographer said.

Russia on Sunday said it had struck at weapons supplied to Ukraine by the United States and European countries and destroyed a runway at a military airfield near the Ukrainian city of Odesa, news agency Reuters reported.

Also read

Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Sunday rejected criticism that Germany was not showing leadership in western efforts to supply Ukraine with heavy weapons to repel Russia's invasion, saying that he'd rather be cautious than make hasty decisions, Reuters reported.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday met with US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi in Kyiv as Russia’s aggression against its neighbour entered its 67th day. Read more

Tensions are rising in the pro-Russian separatist territory of Transnistria in Moldova, with ominous comments from Moscow raising fears that the conflict in Ukraine may extend to its neighbor. Just back from the enclave, a senior security monitor says neither side wants to get involved in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war, Bloomberg reported.

Some women and children were evacuated from a steel plant that is the last defensive stronghold in the bombed-out ruins of the port city of Mariupol, a Ukrainian official and Russian state news organizations said, but hundreds are believed to remain trapped with little food, water or medicine, AP reported.

Ukraine's foreign minister has asked China to provide security guarantees for Kyiv, in a lengthy interview containing some of the most direct criticisms of Moscow recently published by Beijing's state media, AFP reported./

Ukraine's shelling killed and injured its own civilians in the southern region of Kherson, Russia said on Sunday, after pounding southern and eastern areas with missile strikes, while some civilians got away from a steel plant in besieged Mariupol.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky says Russia has lost over 1,000 tanks, almost 200 planes, and 2,500 infantry fighting vehicles, The Kyiv Independent reported.

Finland is preparing to cut off natural gas supplies from Russia in May, the Helsingin Sanomat newspaper reports. Russian energy giant Gazprom has asked the Finnish state-owned energy company Gasum to give a response before May 20 regarding Russia's request to receive payments for gas in rubles.

Russia pounded southern and eastern Ukraine with missile strikes on Saturday, Ukrainian officials said, while some women and children evacuated a steel plant in the besieged city of Mariupol where they had holed up for more than a week, Reuters reported. Moscow has turned its focus to Ukraine's south and east after failing to capture the capital Kyiv in a nine-week assault that has flattened cities, killed thousands of civilians and forced more than 5 million to flee abroad.

Hollywood actor and UN humanitarian Angelina Jolie made a surprise visit to the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on Saturday, the Lviv regional governor said on Telegram. Full report

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Saturday discussed the return of American diplomats to Ukraine as well as an aid of USD 33 billion to the war-torn country with his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba, ANI reported. "Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken spoke today with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba to follow up on their April 24 meeting in Kyiv," US State Department Spokesperson Ned Price said in a state department readout.

The British Foreign Office said on Sunday Russia is using a troll factory to spread disinformation about the war in Ukraine on social media and target politicians across a number of countries including Britain and South Africa, Reuters reported. It said the research exposed how the Kremlin's disinformation campaign was designed to manipulate international public opinion of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, boost support for it and recruit new sympathisers.