May 1, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

Over coverage of the war in Ukraine has moved here.

Civilians who left the area near the Azovstal?steel?plant in Mariupol at a temporary accommodation centre in the village of Bezimenne in the Donetsk region of Ukraine on May 1.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday about 100 civilians had been evacuated from the Azovstal steel plant, the last Ukrainian holdout in the besieged city of Mariupol, following weeks of heavy Russian bombardment.

Here’s what we know about the situation:

Read more on the situation in Mariupol here.

A long convoy of vehicles attempt to drive north toward the city of Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine on Sunday, May 1.

Hundreds of people who had fled their homes in Russian-occupied Kherson were seen evacuating in a convoy of vehicles Sunday afternoon driving north toward the city of Kryvyi Rih.?

A CNN team on the ground in southern Ukraine counted at least 120 cars coming up through the town of Kochubeivka. Some vehicles had white cloths wrapped around the door handles and side mirrors, while others had banners with the word “children” written on them.

Olga, 17, told CNN her family began their journey early in the morning, for a second time. The first time they tried, it was forbidden to leave, she said.

“I was scared, but there were few checkpoints,” she added about the route to evacuate.

Olga, 17, told CNN her family began their journey early in the morning.

Olga said shops in Kherson were empty, and noted cellphone and internet connections had been cut around 9:15 p.m. on Saturday evening.

The CNN team saw families crammed into cars, many with elderly parents; other evacuees were seen shielding their pets, as artillery bangs could be heard in the background and smoke billowed into the sky.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky meets with US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Rep. Jim McGovern, Rep. Gregory Meeks and Rep. Adam Schiff during a visit on April 30, in Kyiv, Ukraine.

US?House Intelligence?Committee?Chairman?Adam Schiff detailed the roughly three-hour discussion members of the Congressional?delegation to Kyiv had with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky?Sunday, and said he thinks “it’s only a matter of time” before US President Joe Biden visits Ukraine.

Schiff said the meeting with Zelensky focused on what his priorities are for further assistance, especially as Ukrainians enter a new phase of the war?with more concentrated fighting in the eastern part of the country. Members of the delegation subsequently relayed the information to Biden on the call, Schiff said, and made recommendations to?the President.

Asked what Zelensky thought about the $33 billion price tag Biden requested in his supplemental aid request for Ukraine to Congress, Schiff said: “It’s his job to say that nothing is enough and, you know, we understand that, we respect that. Nonetheless, I think he’s very grateful for what we’re doing.”

Schiff said they discussed a variety of issues, including ensuring he’s getting the military equipment he needs and is getting it quickly. They discussed the?humanitarian crisis, refugees, war crimes, and he said, “I?wanted to make sure as the intelligence chair that he’s getting the intelligence that he needs.”

Schiff said members of the delegation wanted to communicate to Zelensky at the meeting a message of support because, “If Russia can get away with this, this naked aggression, this invasion of their neighbor, you know, what’s to make us think they’ll stop with Ukraine.”

Birds fly near a plant of?Azovstal?Iron and?Steel?Works during Ukraine-Russia conflict in the southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine on April 29.

After a rare period of quiet that allowed about 100 people to be evacuated, the Azovstal steel complex in Mariupol came under fire again Sunday night, according to a Ukrainian soldier in Mariupol who spoke to Ukrainian television.

They were using “all kinds of weapons,” he claimed.?

It’s unclear whether the renewed shelling will jeopardize the next stage of the evacuation from Azovstal, which is due to take place Monday. It’s estimated hundreds of Ukrainian civilians are still trapped in the ruins of the plant.??

Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister, Iryna Vereshchuk, said “hundreds of civilians remain blocked in Azovstal together with the defenders of Mariupol. The situation has become a sign of a real humanitarian catastrophe, because people are running out of water, food and medicine,” she said.

The Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, said in an interview on Italian television Sunday the “Kyiv authorities are trying by all means to achieve the withdrawal of the Ukrainian radicals remaining in Azovstal, since among them there may be Western officers and mercenaries.”

There’s been no firm evidence western nationals are among the fighters at Azovstal.

US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, center, talks during her meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Saturday, April 30.

US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says a Congressional delegation’s visit to Poland sends “an unmistakable message to the world: that America stands firmly with our NATO allies in our support for Ukraine.”

Pelosi said the delegation was able to meet with troops from the US Army’s 82nd?Airborne Division in Poland, and is looking forward to meeting with Polish President?Andrzej Duda on Monday.

A woman is seen inside a bus before departing from a temporary accommodation center for evacuees during Ukraine-Russia conflict in the village of Bezimenne in the Donetsk Region, Ukraine on May 1.

The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) announced Sunday that a safe passage operation is underway in Ukraine, where civilians from the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol are being evacuated to Zaporizhzhia, according to OCHA Spokesperson Saviano Abreu.

The UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross are coordinating the safe passage of women, children and the elderly who have been stranded in Azovstal for nearly two months, the statement reads. Evacuees are expected to receive humanitarian support, including psychological services in Zaporizhzhia, Abreu said.

UN OCHA’s operation began on Friday alongside a joint UN/ICRC convoy traveling from Zaporizhzhia and reached the steel plant in Mariupol on Saturday morning.

A residential building destroyed by a Russian missile explosion is seen in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on April 30.

Three people were killed and 8 others were injured in Russian shelling in the Kharkiv region on Sunday, according to Oleg Sinegubov, head of the Regional Military Administration.

“The most active hostilities in the Kharkiv region continue to take place in the Izium area, where the Russians are trying to advance, but have suffered losses and failed,” he said.

Russian forces have been trying to push south and west from the Izium area, much of which they captured a month ago. There has also been fighting east of Kharkiv, as Ukrainian units try to disrupt Russian supply lines from the border.?

Dmytro, 39, sits by the grave of his childhood friend Andrii Parkhomenko, on May 1, in Irpin, Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said during an address Sunday that for the first time today, the vital corridor to evacuate civilians from the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol had started working.

Zelensky said for the first time, there have been two days of “real ceasefire” and added more than 100 civilians have been evacuated from the plant.

Earlier on Sunday, Ukrainian authorities alongside the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross confirmed that an effort to evacuate civilians sheltering in the plant was underway.?

The plant has been subject to heavy Russian bombardment in recent weeks. Hundreds of people, dozens of whom are injured, are thought to be inside the steel-making complex.

Zelensky said the first evacuees will arrive in Zaporizhzhia on Monday morning where the Ukrainian government will meet them. He added the Ukrainian government will continue to evacuate people from Mariupol on Monday, starting approximately around 8 a.m. local time.

The evacuation of civilians from the besieged southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol has been paused from Sunday night until Monday due to “security reasons,” the Mariupol City Council said in a Telegram post.

Evacuations will now commence at 8 a.m. local time (1 a.m. ET), near the Port City shopping center in Mariupol, the post added.?

Here are more of the latest headlines from the Russia-Ukraine war:

Four?residents of the town of Lyman in the eastern region of Donetsk were killed by Russian shelling on Sunday, according to Pavlo Kyriyenko, head of the Donetsk Regional Military Administration.

Lyman has been shelled frequently in the last few days as Russian troops step up their offensive to seize Donetsk and Luhansk regions. The Ukrainian military says the Russians have injected fresh troops and artillery into the region, which has also suffered air and drone attacks.

Kyriyenko said another 11 people were wounded in the latest shelling: seven in Lyman, three in Volodymirivka and one in Yarova.

Azovstal?steel?plant?employee Valeria (R), last name withheld, evacuated from Mariupol, hugs her sister Aleksandra as they meet at a temporary accommodation centre during Ukraine-Russia conflict in the village of Bezimenne in the Donetsk Region, Ukraine on May 1.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said during an address that for the first time today, the vital corridor to evacuate civilians from the Azovstal steel plant has started working.

Zelensky said for the first time, there have been two days of “real ceasefire” and added more than 100 civilians have been evacuated from the Azovstal steel plant.

He said the first evacuees will arrive in Zaporizhzhia on Monday morning where the Ukrainian government will meet them. He added the Ukrainian government will continue to evacuate people from Mariupol on Monday, starting approximately around 8 a.m. local time.

The evacuation of civilians from the besieged southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol has been paused until Monday, according to the Mariupol City Council.?

In a Telegram post on Sunday, the city council said that due to “security reasons, the evacuation of the civilian population of Mariupol, located in other parts of the city, was postponed to Monday (May 2).”?

Evacuations will now commence at 8 a.m. local time (1 a.m. ET), near the Port City shopping center in Mariupol, the post added.?

On Sunday, Ukrainian authorities alongside the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross confirmed that an effort to evacuate civilians sheltering in the city’s Azovstal steel plant was underway.?

Pope Francis delivers his message from his studio window overlooking St. Peter's Square during the Regina Coeli prayer at the Vatican, on Sunday, May 1.

Pope Francis on Sunday described Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a “macabre regression of humanity,” saying the suffering of the Ukrainian people makes him “weep.”?

“I suffer and weep, thinking of the suffering of the Ukrainian people, and in particular of the weakest, the elderly and children. There are even terrible reports of children being expelled and deported,” the Pope said after leading a recitation of the Regina Coeli prayer that pays tribute to the Virgin Mother.

He said his thoughts “go immediately to the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, ‘Mary’s city’,” which has been “barbarously bombed and destroyed.”??

The Pope went on to call for “safe humanitarian corridors” to be set up for those trapped in the besieged city’s steelworks, asking “whether everything possible is being done to silence the weapons.”

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba speaks during a press conference in Sofia, Bulgaria on April 19.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has told the EU’s top diplomat Josep Borrell that an embargo on Russian oil must be included in the bloc’s next round of sanctions.?

In a tweet Sunday, Kuleba said he spoke with the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy regarding “the next round of EU sanctions on Russia which must include an oil embargo.”?

The foreign minister has criticized the EU’s failure to impose an embargo on Russian oil imports, telling a NATO press conference in early April that “as long as the West continues buying Russian gas and oil it is supporting Ukraine with one hand while supporting the Russian war machine with another hand.”?

During his talks with Borrell this week, Kuleba “also emphasized there can be no alternative to granting Ukraine EU candidate status,” according to the tweet.?

On April 18, Ukraine completed another step in the long process to become an EU member state, handing over a form with answers to a European Union questionnaire.?

Finally, Kuleba and Borrell discussed the evacuations taking place in the besieged southern city of Mariupol, Kuleba said in his tweet.?

Social media video shows fires and columns of black smoke rising from a site near Belgorod in Russia not far from the Ukrainian border. Other video shows police in the area redirecting traffic away from the area and helicopters circling above the city.?

The governor of the Belgorod region, Vyascheslav Gladkov, said on Telegram that a fire had broken out at a facility belonging to the Ministry of Defense.

“On the border of three municipalities - Borisov and Belgorod districts and Yakovlevsky urban district - a fire occurred on the territory of one of the facilities of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation,”?he wrote.

Samantha Power, the administrator of the US Agency for International Development speaks with ABC's "This Week," on Sunday May 1.

Samantha Power, the administrator of the US Agency for International Development, said Sunday that the impacts of the war in Ukraine include global food shortages and prices, maintaining “our job is to look at it globally” when asked if the worldwide consequences are reflective of a brewing world war.

“It is just another catastrophic effect of Putin’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine,” Power said on ABC’s “This Week.”

This comes after US President Joe Biden pressed Congress on Thursday to consider supplying Ukraine with an additional $33 billion aid package, with $3 billion allocated for humanitarian assistance and food security funding.

She continued: “We really do need this financial support from the Congress to be able to meet emergency food needs so we don’t see the cascading deadly effects of Russia’s war extend into Africa and beyond.”

Power noted that many countries in sub-Saharan Africa and in the Middle East get much of their wheat from Ukraine, where farmers are struggling to plant and harvest their crops for fear of shelling and Russian landmines, she said. Their path to exporting these vital products is then severely restricted by Russia’s invasion which caused the closure of Ukraine’s ports.

Power was pressed on the nature of the crisis by host George Stephanopoulos, who noted that “listening to you lay out these consequences, it’s hard not to conclude that in some respects this is already become something of a world war.”

“Certainly in terms of effects, not confined to the horrors that the Ukrainian people are suffering,” Power responded. “But our job is to look at it globally.”

“Russia tries to take advantage of this and say, ‘oh, it’s the sanctions that are causing these high food prices.’ Not at all,” she said. “It is Russian’s invasion of Ukraine for no reason and its unwillingness now to come to the negotiating table and get out of Ukraine and get back to Russia.”

Azovstal steel plant employee Natalia Usmanova, 37, who was evacuated from?Mariupol, arrives at a temporary accommodation centre during Ukraine-Russia conflict in the village of Bezimenne in the Donetsk Region, Ukraine on May 1.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is working with the United Nations in an ongoing operation to move people out of Mariupol and the besieged Azovstal steel plant, the ICRC said in a statement.?

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed in a tweet on Sunday that the “Evacuation of civilians from Azovstal began.”

“The 1st group of about 100 people is already heading to the controlled area,” he added.

Mariupol’s city council said Sunday there was a “chance” to evacuate civilians from the besieged city of Mariupol.

The Council urged people to gather at 4 p.m. local time (9 a.m. ET) near a shopping center called “Port City” in order to evacuate them to the southern region of Zaporizhzhia.

“If you have relatives or acquaintances in Mariupol, try to contact them by all ways. Call, text and say that it is possible to go to Zaporozhzhia, where it is safe,” the Council said on Telegram.

“We pray that everything works,” it added.

A local Telegram channel said earlier that through 3 p.m. local time, a?“green corridor” would be open for citizens wishing to enter territory “controlled by the enemy in the Kamensky district.”

There are about 100,000 people still in Mariupol, even though most of the city has been severely damaged by weeks of shelling and airstrikes by Russian forces.

Ukrainian officials have been giving more details on the evacuation of civilians who had been trapped at the Azovstal steep plant.?

David Arakhamia, an advisor to President Zelensky, said: “Today is the third day of a special operation we call “Azovstal evacuation.” Since the beginning of the war, since the beginning of the blockade of Azovstal, we have managed to withdraw more than 100 civilians - small children, women and the elderly.”

Iryna Vereshchuk, deputy prime minister, said on Ukrainian television: “Sorry, we were silent. We really wanted everything to work out. Our silence was in order for people to come out alive and unharmed. More than 100 people have been evacuated, and the evacuation continues. All this happened thanks to the control of the President of Ukraine Zelensky, Antonio Guterres, and the International Committee of the Red Cross, for which we are very, very grateful.”

Some more context: Mariupol is home to the Azovstal steel plant, which has been subjected to heavy Russian bombardment in recent weeks. Hundreds of people, dozens of whom are injured, are thought to be inside the steel-making complex.

The Russian news agency TASS says that according to the Ministry of Defense in Moscow, 80 civilians have now been rescued from the “territory” of the Azovstal plant and evacuated to a Russian controlled compound a few miles away?

It’s unclear whether any of them came from within the plant itself, where hundreds of civilians have been under a weeks-long bombardment.?

“Civilians evacuated by Russian servicemen from the Azovstal plant, who wished to leave for areas controlled by the Kiev regime, were handed over to representatives of the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross,” the ministry said.?

The report followed comments from a Ukrainian commander inside the plant who said?some civilians have been evacuated?from the steel works after the introduction of a ceasefire.

It was hoped that these civilians, all women and children, would go to the “agreed destination” of Zaporizhzhia, Capt. Svyatoslav?Palamar said.

CNN’s Kostan Nechyporenko contributed to this report.

Rep. Michael McCaul, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee speaks with ABC's "This Week," on Sunday May 1.

Rep. Michael McCaul, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, expressed confidence on Sunday that a new aid package for Ukraine could pass in Congress relatively quickly.

“I think time is of the essence,” he told ABC’s “This Week,” adding that he believes the next two to three weeks are going to be “very pivotal” in Russia’s war on Ukraine.

The Texas Republican said he wished Congress had been presented even earlier with the $33 billion supplemental funding bill for Ukraine aid that President Biden outlined last week.

“I don’t think we have a lot of time to waste in Congress. I wish we’d had this a little bit sooner, but we have it now,” he said, telling ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that if it were up to him, he would call the House back from recess this week to pass the aid legislation.

On Saturday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi led an official congressional delegation to Kyiv, where the group discussed humanitarian and financial assistance with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

“Every day we don’t send [Ukraine] more weapons is a day where more people will be killed and a day where they could lose this war. I think they can win it. But we have to give them the tools to do it,” he explained.

Pressed on the possibility that Russian President Vladimir Putin may resort to using nuclear weapons, McCaul answered “that’s always a concern.”

He said he thinks Russia’s potential use of a chemical weapon or tactical nuclear weapon would be “beyond the pale” and “crosses a red line.”

If that happens, he said, the US and allies would have to respond “in kind.”

On the Senate side, New Jersey Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez told Fox that they could take up the bill “either this week or next.”

“Either this week, or the next of course, if there is consensus, if there is an agreement, as you know, anything can go through the Senate through unanimous consent,” he said on “Fox News Sunday.” “If somehow there is a desire to start picking it apart or having amendments to it, it could last longer, but time is of the essence.”

One of the white lions is seen in an enclosure at the zoo in Odesa, Ukraine, on April 14.

Two lions that were trapped at the zoo in Kharkiv as fighting raged in the region have begun a new life hundreds of miles away in the zoo at Odesa.

The manager of Odesa zoo, Ihor Beliakov, said he and his deputy had driven to Kharkiv to collect the lions.

They drove all night to get to Kharkiv, loaded the lions into their van at 7 a.m. and then drove all the way back to Odesa — an 18-hour trip as they avoided the frontlines.

“The lions were silent during the trip. There were no incidents on the way, we were not shelled, nothing like that,” Beliakov said.?

They only had to refuel once, and perhaps unsurprisingly there were no lines.?

The lions are now recovering in Odesa.

They have been renamed after characters in ” The Lion King” — Mufasa and Nala.?

Beliakov said the workers at the Kharkiv Eco-Park were heroes for getting so many of the animals there to safety.?

Ukrainian Ambassador to the US Oksana Markarova speaks during a recent visit to the US Capitol on April 28.

Ukrainian Ambassador to the US Oksana Markarova said Sunday the recent visit by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Kyiv was “symbolic” and that Ukraine looks forward to the approval by the US Congress of a $33 billion supplemental funding bill aimed at supporting Ukraine over the next several months.

“We need all the assistance we can get in defensive weapons, in military support, in financial support but also in humanitarian support,”?Markarova said in an interview with ABC’s “This Week.”?“We look forward to Congress approving it” and “we count on the US in this,” she said.

Markarova?reiterated Kyiv’s position that “for us there is no question Ukraine will win” the war with Russia, adding “the question is how many brave Ukrainians we will lose.”

On Saturday, Pelosi led the first official US congressional delegation to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion began.?

Ukraine's prosecutor general Iryna Venedictova speaks to journalists during an investigation in Bucha, Ukraine on April 12.

The prosecutor general of Ukraine said her office is opening new cases of alleged war crimes by Russian forces, with a total of 9,158 criminal cases “involving purely war crimes.”

“We have already identified specific war criminals,” said Iryna Venedictova. “There are 15 people in the Kyiv region for instance, 10 of them in Bucha. We are holding them accountable for torture, rape, and looting.”

Ukrainian prosecutors named ten Russian soldiers last week as suspected of a variety of crimes in Bucha.

On the identification of victims in Bucha, Venedictova said that some bodies cannot be identified and DNA samples are collected.

“Unfortunately, we have grounds to open new cases every day: the death of civilians, bombing, deportation of our citizens and children to the occupied territories and to the territory of the aggressor state, etc,” she said.

She said the cases covered the regions of Kyiv, Chernihiv and Sumy.

Venedictova added that Ukraine was receiving international assistance in its investigations.

“Now we have a team of French experts, and experts from Slovakia. We are waiting for the experts from Lithuania next Tuesday,” she said.

In a signal that the United States is stepping up its support for Ukraine, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi traveled to Kyiv with a congressional delegation on Saturday, becoming the most high-level American official to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky since the war began more than two months ago.

The visit was kept under wraps until Pelosi and other Democratic lawmakers returned to Poland, where they held a press conference on Sunday and pledged to “stand with Ukraine until victory is won.”

But there was no sign of a détente over the weekend, as fighting continued to rage on the front line in eastern Ukraine. The Ukrainian military said on Sunday that Russia was reinforcing its two-week-old offensive in the country’s industrial heartland, pouring in more weapons and military equipment.

Here are some other developments:

There is a “chance” to evacuate civilians from the besieged city of Mariupol on Sunday, Mariupol’s city council has announced.

It urges people to gather at 4 p.m. local time (9 a.m. ET) near a shopping center called “Port City” in order to evacuate them to the southern region of Zaporizhzhia.

“If you have relatives or acquaintances in Mariupol, try to contact them by all ways. Call, text and say that it is possible to go to Zaporozhzhia, where it is safe,” the Council said on Telegram.

“We pray that everything works,” it added.

A local telegram channel said earlier that through 3 p.m. local time a?“green corridor” would be open for citizens wishing to enter territory “controlled by the enemy in the Kamensky district.”

There are about 100,000 people still in Mariupol, even though most of the city has been severely damaged by weeks of shelling and airstrikes by Russian forces.

Some context: Mariupol is home to the Azovstal steel plant, which has been subjected to heavy Russian bombardment in recent weeks. Hundreds of people, dozens of whom are injured, are thought to be inside the steel-making complex.

Earlier Sunday, Russian state news agencies said that 46 civilians had been evacuated from the vicinity of the plant, quoting the Russian Ministry of Defense.

Their reports followed comments from a a Ukrainian commander inside the plant who said?some civilians have been evacuated?from the steel works after the introduction of a ceasefire.

It was hoped that these civilians, all women and children, would go to the “agreed destination” of Zaporizhzhia, Capt. Svyatoslav?Palamar said.

As hundreds of evacuees arrived overnight at a processing center for internally displaced persons in the southern city of Kryvyi Rih, for one family it was an all-too-familiar experience.

For the second time in eight years, a Ukrainian family had been forced to flee their home, they told CNN.

Having lost their home in Crimea when Russia captured and annexed the territory in 2014, they moved north to Kherson.

Yet when Kherson was taken by Russia in the first week of March, the family were once again forced to abandon their home and flee north, this time to Kryvyi Rih.

They joined the 500 evacuees who arrived overnight at the city’s Narodnyi Dim processing center, a CNN team was told.

The center has been open and supporting evacuees since the start of the war, with around 50,000 people registering and transiting through, said the center’s acting head Natalya Patrusheva.

Spread over two floors, neat racks of clothes hold everything from small items for babies to clothing for adults. The CNN team saw boxes of food and other basic supplies piled up against the walls.

After being processed, evacuees are assisted by volunteers. Some evacuees move on by train to Lviv, in the far west of Ukraine, while others travel on by bus to cities such as Odesa, Vinnytsia, and Khmelnytskyi.

Some context: Over 7.7 million people are internally displaced in Ukraine after being forced to flee their homes by Russia’s invasion, according to a report by the International Organization for Migration published last month.

According to the third Ukraine Internal Displacement Report, published April 21, the number of internally displaced people in Ukraine has risen to at least 17.5% – or more than one in six – of Ukraine’s pre-war population.

With more than 5 million refugees having left Ukraine for neighboring countries, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, a total of at least 12.7 million people have been left displaced since the beginning of the Russian invasion in late February.

Nadiia Taratorina, 22, and her 6-month-old son Artem fled to the relative safety of the Carpathian Mountains, in early March. Weeks later, she decided to return home to Kryvyi Rih despite ongoing fighting there.

Related article They fled Ukraine to protect their children. Now these mothers are returning home

House Speaker?Nancy?Pelosi?said that she traveled to Kyiv on Saturday to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and send “a clear message to the world that America stands with Ukraine.”

Pelosi led the first official US congressional delegation to visit the country since Russia’s invasion began more than two months ago.

“America stands with Ukraine, we stand with Ukraine until victory is won, and we stand with NATO,”?Pelosi told reporters?in Rzeszow, Poland, after leaving Ukraine.

Pelosi?said that she and Zelensky discussed humanitarian and financial assistance during her visit, which lasted just over three hours. She said it was “a great?honor” to meet with Zelensky and “to convey to him a message of unity from the US Congress and a message of appreciation.”?

US President Joe Biden told reporters late Sunday morning that he had yet to speak with the Speaker about her trip.

US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi arrived with a Congressional delegation to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv, Ukraine on April 30.

Pelosi, second in line to the presidency after the Vice President, becomes the most senior United States official to visit Ukraine since the war broke out more than two months ago.

Here is a selection of images from the historic meeting.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pose for a picture with members of their entourage, including Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, Gregory Meeks of New York, the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, and Adam Schiff of California, the chairman of the Intelligence Committee.

Pelosi made an unannounced trip to Kyiv, Ukraine to meet with Ukraine's president.

Zelensky and Pelosi shake hands in the Ukrainian capital.

Zelensky welcomes Pelosi after her arrival in Kyiv.

Zelensky awards the Order of Princess Olga to Pelosi for her "significant personal contribution" to strengthening Ukrainian and American ties.

Zelensky and Pelosi talk during their meeting.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky gave Nancy Pelosi a few symbolic tokens on her trip to Kyiv on Saturday, thanking the US House Speaker for her support of Ukraine.

Zelensky awarded Pelosi with “the Order of Princess Olga” for her “significant personal contribution” to strengthening Ukrainian and American ties. Olga was the first woman to rule Kievan Rus, the first East Slavic state. The order bearing her name is awarded to women who have achieved significant success in politics and society – the personification in Ukraine of female strength.

He also gave Pelosi a Ukrainian flag that he and female members of parliament, including those she met with at the US Capitol recently, had signed, according to Pelosi’s spokesman Drew Hammill.

House Speaker Nancy?Pelosi’s unannounced trip to Kyiv to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky comes as the United States and its allies are stepping up long-term support to Ukraine as Russia’s invasion stretches into its third month.

Last week, responding to pleas from Zelensky, a group of 40 nations gathered by the US in Germany agreed to streamline and expedite the delivery of weapons to Ukraine. “We’ve got to move at the speed of war,” said Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who met with Ukraine’s president in Kyiv with Secretary of State Antony Blinken last week.

The House on Thursday passed legislation that would allow Biden to use a World War II-era law, known as the Lend-Lease Act of 1941, to swiftly supply weapons to Ukraine on loan. That law was originally created to help forces fighting Hitler, and reflects the urgency in Congress to support the Ukrainian armed forces.

President Joe Biden on Thursday asked Congress for an additional $33 billion aimed at supporting Ukraine over the next several months as Russia’s brutal and unrelenting war enters a new phase. Biden also outlined a proposal that would further pressure Russian oligarchs over the war in Ukraine, including using money from their seized assets to fund Ukraine’s defense.

The package is significantly larger than the other packages that have been put forward, and is more than twice as much as the $13.6 billion infusion of military and humanitarian aid that Congress approved last month.

Zelensky stressed the importance of the financial assistance in his meeting with?Pelosi.

The visit by?Pelosi, who is second in line to succeed the president, signals a significant measure of commitment to supporting Ukraine from the most senior level of US leadership.

Read more about America’s financial assistance to Ukraine here:

U.S. President Joe Biden speaks in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Thursday, April 28, 2022. Biden will ask Congress to provide $33 billion for military, economic, and humanitarian aid to Ukraine, as well as the power to seize and sell the assets of wealthy Russians. Photographer: Samuel Corum/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Related article Biden to ask Congress for $33 billion in aid to Ukraine as war enters new phase

Civilians that left the area near Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol walk to a temporary accommodation center in Bezimenne, Ukraine on May 1.

Two groups of civilians were evacuated from the vicinity of the besieged Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol on Saturday, Russian state news agencies have said.

A total of 46 people had left “residential buildings adjacent to Azovstal” and “were provided with accommodation and food,” TASS and RAI Novosti said, quoting the Russian Ministry of Defense.

The Russian agencies did not disclose where the evacuees were being taken.

Earlier Sunday, a Ukrainian commander inside the plant said some civilians have been evacuated from the steel works following the introduction of a ceasefire.

Capt. Svyatoslav?Palamar, the deputy commander of the?Azov Regiment, said the?ceasefire, which was supposed to begin at 6 a.m. local time, ended up starting at 11 a.m. local time.

Palamar said 20 women and children had been taken to the “agreed meeting point,” in the hope that they would be evacuated to the “agreed destination” of Zaporizhzhia, a Ukrainian-controlled city in the country’s southeast.

Some context: With the plant subjected to heavy Russian bombardment over the past several weeks, there are thought to be hundreds of people – dozens of whom are injured – inside the steel complex.

Yuriy Ryzhenkov, CEO of Metinvest Holding that owns the plant, told CNN Friday that at least 150 of the plant’s 11,000 employees have been killed and thousands remain unaccounted for.

Harrowing footage shared by Ukrainian soldiers last week, said to be filmed in the vast network of tunnels under the plant, showed women and children living underground in a dark, damp basement.

In the videos, one mother said they’ve not seen the sun in weeks and will soon run out of food. An?old woman, her head bandaged and bloodied, shivers on a cot. A?baby?wears a plastic bag fastened with duct tape around its small waist – there are no diapers left.

Smoke rises above a plant of Azovstal Iron and Steel Works company and buildings damaged in the course of Ukraine-Russia conflict in the southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine April 18, 2022. REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko

Related article 'They never expected Mariupol to resist.' Locals horrified by Russia's relentless attack on the vast steel plant shielding Ukrainians

Artists performing the ballet "Giselle." During the war, a full-scale performance will be shown at the opera for the first time.

With the audience waiting eagerly in its seats, a familiar message echoes through the hall, reminding patrons to turn off phones and immerse themselves in the experience.

It’s immediately followed by a more abnormal announcement. “Dear guest, our event will be suspended in case of air raid alert. Dancers and spectators must go to the bomb shelter situated in the theater,” it tells the crowd – a poignant reminder that this is not a regular night at the theater.

Then the lights dim, the orchestra begins to play, and a dancer appears on stage from the wings.

On Friday, Lviv National Opera?staged its first full production since the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24.

The Western Ukrainian city of Lviv has emerged almost entirely unscathed, despite devastating conflict elsewhere in the country.

With Lviv residents slowly learning to live with the war, Vovkun said providing a place of solace amid the raging conflict is the driving force behind resuming shows.

Vovkun opened with “Giselle,” a well-performed ballet classic that tells the story of a beautiful peasant girl who dies prematurely after being betrayed by the man she loves.

Despite the show’s sell-out popularity, many seats remain empty as the theater’s bomb shelter can only hold 300 people.

Daryna Kirik, the 21-year-old who plays the lead role of “Giselle,” has seen her life upended by the war and the horrors of Bucha, where mass graves were recently found.

The crowd is captivated with every leap, lift and arabesque. It is only a two-hour show, yet for a time the audience is transported away from the chaos of reality.

“After you visit this place, you understand that life can’t be defeated. Our life can’t be bombed, or destroyed by missiles or chemical or nuclear weapons,” says Victoria Palamarchuk, a 50-year-old journalist, currently staying with extended family in Lviv after leaving her home in the central Zhytomyr region.

Read the full story here:

Daryna Kirik, 21, and Olexandr Omelchenko, performing the ballet "Giselle." During the war, a full-scale performance will be shown at the opera for the first time.

Related article As war rages in Ukraine, ballet dancers return to the stage

Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv, Ukraine on Sunday.

House Speaker Nancy?Pelosi?made an unannounced trip to the Ukrainian capital on Saturday, becoming the most senior United States official to meet with President Volodymr Zelensky since the war broke out more than two months ago.

Pelosi’s office confirmed the trip in a statement on Sunday, saying that the Speaker had led an official congressional delegation to Ukraine – the first since Russia’s invasion.

Zelensky shared a video on Sunday of their meeting in Kyiv, and thanked the US for its powerful support of Ukraine against Russian aggression.?

“We are visiting you to say thank you for your fight for freedom, that we’re on a frontier of freedom and that your fight is a fight for everyone,”?Pelosi?said to Zelensky in the clip. “And so our commitment is to be there for you until the fight is done.”

The trip to Kyiv by?Pelosi, who is second in line to succeed the president, signals a significant measure of commitment to supporting Ukraine from the most senior level of US leadership.

“Our Congressional Delegation had the solemn opportunity and extraordinary honor of meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other top Ukrainian officials in Kyiv,” according to the?news release.

“Our delegation conveyed our respect and gratitude to President Zelenskyy for his leadership and our admiration of the Ukrainian people for their courage in the fight against Russia’s oppression.”??

Pelosi?was joined by several other senior members of Congress, including Gregory Meeks of New York, the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, and Adam Schiff of California, the chairman of the Intelligence Committee.

“When we return to the United States, we will do so further informed, deeply inspired and ready to do what is needed to help the Ukrainian people as they defend democracy for their nation and for the world,” the release ends.?

CNN’s Daniella Diaz contributed to this report.?????

Russia is reinforcing its offensive operations in eastern Ukraine with weapons and military equipment amid heavy artillery assaults, according to the Ukrainian military.??

Airstrikes and artillery fire by Russian forces continue in many areas, from Kharkiv in the north to Zaporizhzhia in the south, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said in its latest operational update.

One of the main targets of Russian forces is the industrial town of Sloviansk in Donetsk.

A Ukrainian soldier sits on a Armoured personnel carrier (APC) driving on a road near Sloviansk, eastern Ukraine, on April 26.

The General Staff said Russian forces were trying to break through Ukrainian defensive lines around Olenivka. Altogether in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, nine enemy attacks had been repulsed.

There appears to be intense pressure on front-line Ukrainian defenses in the Luhansk region. The Luhansk regional administration said that the village of Zolote-3 had been 70% destroyed by Russian fire. And the region’s military administrator, Serhiy Hayday, said that nearby – in Orikhovo – there were “intense gunfights – street after street.”?

He said the towns of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk had withstood “six massive artillery shellings each” on Saturday.?

In southern Ukraine, the Ukrainian military said that Russian troops?were trying to establish control over all of the Kherson region and preparing for offensive action towards the cities of Mykolaiv and Kryvyi Rih.?

The Air Command “South” of the Ukrainian Air Force said that in “the Mykolaiv-Kherson direction?active hostilities continue.” But it said its forces had attacked Russian positions on Snake Island off the coast of Kherson, destroying equipment.?

Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv, Ukraine on Sunday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday said he had held a meeting with a congressional delegation from the United States, including House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Zelensky also shared a video of their visit on his official Twitter account.

A view of a heavily damaged building in Ukrainian city of Mariupol under the control of Russian military and pro-Russian separatists, on April 29, 2022.?

The Russian army has killed twice as many people in Mariupol in two months as German Nazis did in two years during World War II, Mariupol City Council claimed in a statement on its Telegram channel.?

CNN is not able to independently verify these claims.?

Russia has also illegally deported as many Mariupol residents as Hitler’s troops did during the years of occupation, the city council claimed in its statement on Saturday.

A memorial to those who have lost their lives in the Russian war on Ukraine in downtown Lviv on April 30.

Some evacuations have taken place at the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, where hundreds of people, including dozens injured during an intense Russian bombardment over the past several weeks, are thought to be trapped.

Here are the latest developments:

The Azovstal steel plant:?Nearly every building at the sprawling steel plant, the?last Ukrainian holdout in Mariupol, has been?destroyed,?new satellite images from Maxar Technologies show. Some civilians?have been evacuated?from the plant after a ceasefire was introduced, according to a Ukrainian commander inside.

Russian submarine: Russia has released video showing it is using a submarine in the Black Sea to launch cruise missile attacks on Ukraine, confirming earlier Ukrainian military claims.

Explosions in Odesa: Multiple explosions in the southern city of Odesa were reported soon after 6 p.m. local time by Ukrainian media and witnesses. One witness told CNN she saw at least one combat plane over the city. The runway at Odesa’s airport had been damaged, according to the Ukrainian military.

Russian tanks destroyed: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the Ukrainian army has already destroyed more than 1,000 Russian tanks, nearly 200 Russian aircraft, and almost 2,500 armored fighting vehicles.

Rebuilding and recovery: 69% of de-occupied settlements in Ukraine now have “full-fledged local self-government” again, Zelensky said in his Saturday night address, adding the work of humanitarian offices has already begun in 93% of liberated settlements.

A destroyed Russian tank on a road in the Kyiv region on April 16.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the Ukrainian army has already destroyed more than 1,000 Russian tanks, nearly 200 Russian aircraft, and almost 2,500 armored fighting vehicles.

Despite these losses, Russian troops still have equipment to launch additional attacks, Zelensky said.

On May 9, Russia plans to hold its traditional Victory Day parade in Red Square, commemorating the German surrender to the Soviet Union in the Second World War.

The Ukrainian President also said Russia has already lost more than 23,000 soldiers since the invasion began. CNN cannot independently verify this claim.?

Russia has sporadically released casualty figures that are low and which observers deem to be a massive underestimate. Two days prior to Russia’s update,?two senior NATO military officials estimated the number of Russian soldiers killed in action in Ukraine to be between 7,000 and 15,000. Around the same time,?other US officials?had put Russian losses in a similar range – between 7,000 and 14,000 Russian soldiers killed – but they expressed “low confidence” in those estimates.

Earlier in the month,?Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov briefly admitted Russia had suffered “significant” losses of its troops in Ukraine, calling the losses “a huge tragedy” for the country in an interview with Sky News.?

Angelina Jolie with kids in Lviv, Ukraine, on April 30.

Actress Angelina Jolie, who is also a United Nations special envoy for refugees, visited a boarding school and medical institution in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, according to Maksym Kozytskyy, the head of Lviv’s regional military administration.

“In one of the medical institutions, she has visited children who suffered from a missile strike by the Russian military on the Kramatorsk train station. She was very moved by their stories. One girl was even able to tell Ms. Jolie about her dream privately,” according to Kozytskyy.

When visiting a boarding school in the region, “she promised to come again,” he said.

“This visit was a surprise for all of us,” Kozytskyy added.

UNHCR’s Head of Global Communications Joung-ah?Ghedini-Williams told CNN Saturday that “Angelina Jolie is traveling to the region in her personal capacity and UNHCR has no involvement in this visit.”?

Earlier on Saturday, Jolie was photographed visiting a coffee shop in Lviv. CNN has reached out to Jolie’s representatives for comment.?

A satellite image shows an overview of the Azovstal steel plant, the last Ukrainian military holdout which is also serving as a civilian shelter in Mariupol, Ukraine, on April 29.

Some civilians have been evacuated from the Azovstal steel works in Mariupol after a ceasefire was introduced, according to a commander in the Azov Regiment, one of the Ukrainian soldiers trapped at the plant.

Capt. Svyatoslav?Palamar, the deputy commander of the Azov Regiment, said the?ceasefire, which was supposed to begin at 6 a.m. local time, ended up starting at 11 a.m. local time.

“As of now, it’s the truth, both sides follow the ceasefire regime,” he said.

The evacuation convoy was very delayed, he said. “Since 6 a.m., we’ve been waiting for the evacuation convoy to arrive, which only arrived at 6:25 p.m.”

“We have brought 20 civilians to the agreed meeting point, whom we’ve managed to rescue from under the rubble. These are women and children. We hope these people will go the agreed destination, which is Zaporizhzhia, the territory controlled by Ukraine,” Palamar said.

“As of now, the rescue operation is ongoing, conducted by the servicemen of Azov - we rescue the civilians from under the rubble,” he added.

“These are women, children and the elderly,” he said in a video message on the regiment’s Telegram channel.

“We hope that this process will be further extended and we will successfully evacuate all civilians,” he said.

TASS, Russia’s state news agency, said earlier Saturday that a group of civilians left the steel plant. A correspondent on the scene told TASS that a total of 25 people came out, including six children under the age of 14. CNN cannot independently verify the TASS reporting.

There are thought to be hundreds of people inside the steel complex, including dozens injured during an intense Russian bombardment over the past several weeks. The latest satellite images of the plant show that many of its buildings have been reduced to ruins.

The defenders of the Azovstal plant said that attacks on Wednesday night had hit the makeshift hospital inside the complex, greatly adding to the number of injured.?

Here’s what a part of the plant looked like approximately six weeks ago:

A satellite image from March 22 shows an overview of the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, Ukraine.

Ukrainian media and witnesses reported multiple explosions in the southern city of Odesa soon after 6 p.m. local time. One witness told CNN that she saw at least one combat plane over the city.

The military’s Operational Command (South) said on Telegram that the runway at Odesa’s airport had been damaged.

The blasts were heard soon after air raid sirens sounded across the city.

A witness to the explosions told CNN she was about one kilometer (.62 miles) away from the airport when she heard two explosions. She said the attack lasted about 10 minutes and she was still experiencing hearing difficulties because of the noise from the impacts.

A popular Ukrainian supermarket in the southern region of Zaporizhzhia announced a grand reopening Saturday under new – Russian – management. It is the latest sign of attempts by Moscow’s occupying forces to rub out Ukrainian identity in territories under its control.?

Formerly, the shop in Melitopol was part of the ATB chain, a Dnipro-based business. But a leaflet posted on a local TV station’s Telegram channel boasts the supermarket is now part of the MERA chain, which is headquartered in St. Petersburg, Russia.?

The leaflet promises that shoppers spending at least 500 hryvnia (about $16) will be entered into a “super prize draw” – though details of what the winner could take home are not revealed.?

Elsewhere in the region, a large Ukrainian coat of arms has been removed from the front of the mayor’s office in the town of Tokmak. Photos circulating on social media show the distinctive Ukrainian symbol – a yellow trident on a blue background – propped up against the entrance of the building. An earlier photo on the same Telegram channel shows a man up a ladder apparently working to loosen the trident from its place.?

And as if to underline the sense of a clock being turned back, video has emerged from the neighboring region of Kherson — also under Russian occupation — of a statue of former Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin being re-erected in the town of Nova Kakhovka.?

One video captures the statue of the Russian revolutionary and first leader of the Soviet Union being carried flat on a truck through the city.?

A later photo shows the statue being winched onto a plinth in front of the city council building.?

Some context: Statues of Vladimir Lenin were a hallmark of towns and cities across the Soviet Union, but many have been removed from Ukrainian locations in recent years as relations with Russia have deteriorated.?