Civilian evacuations begin at Mariupol steel plant as images reveal ...

Western artillery surging into Ukraine will reshape war with RussiaUkraine accuses Russia of stealing tons of grainRussian threats redraw the global energy mapPhoto: People leaving eastern Ukrainian cityBritish team to help Ukraine investigate war crimes, sexual violenceUpdates from key Ukrainian cities and regionsCivilian evacuations underway at Mariupol steel plant, Azov leader saysHow the ‘jack-in-the-box’ flaw dooms some Russian tanksUkrainian official denies Russia’s claim that lifting of sanctions discussed in talksAngelina Jolie meets with children, residents in trip to LvivBlood, but no bodies, found inside bus attacked while on evacuation missionUkraine regains control of four settlements in Kharkiv, military saysOdessa airport runway unusable after bombing, city officials sayUkrainians found gagged, ‘shot in the ear’ near Bucha, police chief saysIn battered Kramatorsk, most people have left, but some stay to helpWestern artillery surging into Ukraine will reshape war with RussiaUkraine accuses Russia of stealing tons of grainRussian threats redraw the global energy mapPhoto: People leaving eastern Ukrainian cityBritish team to help Ukraine investigate war crimes, sexual violenceUpdates from key Ukrainian cities and regionsCivilian evacuations underway at Mariupol steel plant, Azov leader saysHow the ‘jack-in-the-box’ flaw dooms some Russian tanksUkrainian official denies Russia’s claim that lifting of sanctions discussed in talksAngelina Jolie meets with children, residents in trip to LvivBlood, but no bodies, found inside bus attacked while on evacuation missionUkraine regains control of four settlements in Kharkiv, military saysOdessa airport runway unusable after bombing, city officials sayUkrainians found gagged, ‘shot in the ear’ near Bucha, police chief saysIn battered Kramatorsk, most people have left, but some stay to helpThis live coverage has ended. The Russian military is concentrating its forces in the east, where the Ukrainian Defense Ministry on Saturday said it had repelled more than a dozen attacks in the preceding 24 hours.British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said her country will send investigators to Ukraine to help collect evidence of alleged war crimes, including sexual violence.The United States and European governments have accused the Kremlin of possible war crimes and pledged to help Ukraine investigate, after the withdrawal of Russian forces from Bucha in Kyiv’s suburbs and other parts of the country revealed signs of torture, summary executions and mutilation on dead bodies in streets. Moscow has dismissed the accusations and the gruesome imagery out of Bucha that sparked global outrage.Ukrainian prosecutors and the International Criminal Court (ICC) are investigating allegations of war crimes, although holding senior officials of a global power to account amid the raging conflict could face big hurdles.After meeting Friday with ICC officials in The Hague, Truss announced that a British team would go to Ukraine in May to gather information such as witness accounts, as well as forensic and video evidence, on atrocities including rape and sexual violence.“We will help Ukraine’s own investigations by sending a team of British experts to help collect evidence on the ground in Ukraine,” she said.In a Saturday call, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that his nation is committed more than ever “to reinforcing Ukraine and ensuring Putin fails,” Johnson’s office said in a statement.Here are some developments from regions across Ukraine:Kyiv: As more Ukrainian residents return to the capital, which Russian forces pulled out of in early April, government officials are urging people to quit driving so that gas and energy supplies can remain at levels needed for Ukrainian combat troops.Kharkiv: The Ukrainian military said it regained control of four settlements that had been under Russian control. It said earlier this week that Russian forces captured some urban settlements as they sought to expand their grip over the two provinces that make up the eastern Donbas region.Civilian evacuations are underway at a Mariupol steel plant that has become the last holdout against Russia’s quest to control the strategic port city, the deputy commander of a Ukrainian regiment said in a video shared Saturday on Telegram.Svyatoslav Palamar, deputy commander of the Azov Regiment, said 20 women and children have left in the hope of being taken to Zaporizhzhia, a city about 130 miles to the northwest, where evacuees have been shuttled. “The reason for their introduction by the world community has not been eliminated yet; that is the occupation of part of the territory of Ukraine and the treacherous violation of our territorial integrity and sovereignty.”Speaking to the Chinese news agency Xinhua, Lavrov claimed several issues were being discussed, including the sanctions.“The issues of denationalization, recognition of new geopolitical realities, lifting of sanctions, the status of the Russian language and others are also on the agenda,” Lavrov said.Podoliak responded in Interfax Ukraine by pointing to “the blood of innocent Ukrainian citizens” across the country, and suggested that Lavrov’s remarks were “not reliable.”“We must once again urge the representatives of the Russian Federation to refrain from commenting that is not reliable and that at least somehow corresponds to the real course of the negotiation process,” he said.Actress and filmmaker Angelina Jolie was spotted Saturday in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv.Video posted to social media shows Jolie, an Academy Award winner who has been a U.N. special envoy for refugees since 2012, signing an autograph for a fan in the city, which has been a relatively safe haven during the Russian invasion. “There were no bodies.”He added that he hoped that “someone among the volunteers in the buses” was alive.Later, Haidai said that he was halting evacuations from Popasna until “there was full information about the shelling from the enemy fighting unit.” He also said that 40 people, including four children from the town of Lysychansk, were successfully evacuated on Saturday.The Ukrainian military said Saturday that it had regained control of four settlements in Kharkiv that had been under Russian control.Ukrainian military spokesman Oleksandr Shtupun announced in a news release on the Defense Ministry’s Facebook page that the nation had made gains in the eastern part of the country.“As a result of the offensive of the Ukrainian Defense Forces in the Kharkiv oblast, control over the settlements of Verkhnya Rohanka, Ruska Lozova, Slobidske and Prilesne was restored,” Shtupun said.Shtupun accused the Russian forces of continuing “to carry out illegal actions in the occupied territories of Kharkiv region.” In the Donetsk, Russia is still “leading active combat operations practically along the entire line of clash,” according to the Ukrainian military.“There are no stopping aviation strikes and artillery shelling of the positions of Ukrainian defenders,” Shtupun said.Despite the constant Russian bombardment, the Ukrainian military claimed that its progress in the east would continue.The Odessa airport’s runway cannot be used after a missile attack Saturday, city officials said.“As a result of a missile attack in the Odessa region, the runway of the Odessa airport was damaged,” the city’s official Telegram account said.