Ukraine war live updates: Evacuation of civilians from Mariupol steel mill to continue

An effort to evacuate people from a steel plant in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol was planned to continue on Monday to bring people out of the steel plant where the city's last defenders have been holding out, the Mariupol City Council said.

An estimated 100,000 civilians remain in the port city which has faced constant shelling since early on in the war.

Russia's offensive in the east of the country has continued as Ukrainian forces fight village by village to stall their advance.

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A safe passage operation at the steel plant in Mariupol was to continue on Monday at 7 am local time, local officials said. The plant is the last Ukrainian stronghold in the besieged southern Ukrainian port city.

Zelenskyy said on Sunday that a group of about 100 people were evacuated from the Azovstal plant during the day. Russia's defence ministry put the number at 80 civilians.

Meanwhile, the Russian troops continued to shell the Azovstal plant as soon as the evacuation operation ended, according to Ukrainian military sources.

At least four civilians were killed and another 11 injured in the Donetsk region on 1 May, governer Pavlo Kyrylenko said in his daily update. The number does not include casualties in Mariupol and Volnovakha.

Poland’s armed forces said that military exercises involving thousands of NATO soldiers have begun.

After seizing the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson in early March, "Russia has sought to legitimise its control of the city" by installing a pro-Russian administration, the UK Ministry of Defence said.

US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi met with Ukraine’s president on Saturday. She was the highest-ranking US