Russia's bombing of a school in the eastern Ukrainian village of Bilohorivka has killed at least two people, with another 60 feared dead, the Governor of the Luhansk region says.
Governor Serhiy Gaidai said Russian forces dropped a bomb on the school, where about 90 people were sheltering, on Saturday afternoon, causing a fire that engulfed the building.
"The fire was extinguished after nearly four hours, then the rubble was cleared, and, unfortunately, the bodies of two people were found," Mr Gaidai wrote on Sunday on the Telegram messaging app.
"Thirty people were evacuated from the rubble, seven of whom were injured," he wrote.
Reuters could not immediately verify the report.
Civilians evacuated from Azovstal
Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister announced all women, children and older adults were evacuated from a Mariupol steel mill long besieged by Russian forces.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a late-night address that more than 300 civilians had been rescued from the plant.
Authorities would now focus on evacuating the wounded and medics, and helping residents elsewhere in Mariupol and surrounding settlements reach safety, he said.
It is unclear how many people remain there. Ukrainian officials fear Russian forces want to wipe them out by Monday, when Moscow commemorates the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.
Ukrainian fighters have made a final stand to prevent a complete takeover of Mariupol.
Securing the strategically important Sea of Azov port would give Moscow a land bridge to the Crimea Peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine during a 2014 invasion.
New satellite photos showed vast devastation at a sprawling seaside steel mill that is the last corner of Ukrainian resistance in the city.
Buildings at the Azovstal plant, including one under which hundreds of Ukrainians are likely hiding, had large, gaping holes in the roof, according to the images shot Friday by Planet Labs PBC.
The bombardment of the steel mill intensified in recent days despite a Russian pledge for a temporary ceasefire to allow civilians inside to escape.
Russian forces backed by tanks and artillery tried again on Saturday to storm Azovstal, seeking to dislodge the last Ukrainian defenders in the strategic port city, Ukraine's military command said.
Russia has used mortars, artillery, truck-mounted rocket systems, aerial bombardment and shelling from sea to target the facility.
The latest evacuees followed roughly 500 others who were allowed to leave the plant and other parts of the city in recent days.
Ukrainian fighters at the Azovstal mill have repeatedly refused to surrender but on Saturday they used white flags to help evacuate civilians from the site.
The fighters issued a statement via social media saying both they and the Russians have used a white flag system to halt fighting in order to get civilians out.
Ukrainian forces fight back in Kharkiv
Ukraine's general staff said Russia's offensive in eastern Ukraine aimed to establish full control over the Donetsk and Luhansk regions and maintain the land corridor between these territories and Crimea.
Ukrainian armed forces fighting in the two eastern regions controlled by Russian-speaking separatists said in a Facebook post they fought off nine enemy attacks on Saturday, destroying 19 tanks and 24 other armoured vehicles as well as downing a helicopter.
Western military analysts said a Ukrainian counter-offensive also was advancing around the nation's second-largest city, Kharkiv, even as it remained a key target of Russian shelling.
The Ukrainian army said it retook control of five villages and part of a sixth near hotly contested Kharkiv.
Other Russian attacks near Kharkiv blew up three road bridges to slow counter-offensive actions, the Ukrainian military's general staff said.
Russia's defence ministry said it destroyed a large stockpile of military equipment from the United States and European countries near the Bohodukhiv railway station in the Kharkiv region.
Russian forces hit 18 Ukrainian military facilities overnight, including three ammunition depots in Dachne, near the southern port city of Odesa, the ministry said.
Ukraine targets Russian-held Snake Island
In a sign of the unexpectedly effective defence that has sustained the fighting into its 11th week, Ukraine's military flattened Russian positions on a Black Sea island that was captured in the war's first days and has become a symbol of Ukrainian resistance.
Satellite photos also showed Ukraine targeting Russian-held Snake Island in a bid to impede Russia’s efforts to control the Black Sea.
An image taken early on Saturday by Planet Labs PBC showed that most of the island’s buildings had been destroyed by Ukrainian drone attacks, as well as what appeared to be a Serna-class landing craft against the island's northern beach.
The image corresponds with a Ukrainian military video showing a drone striking the Russian vessel, engulfing it in flames.
Snake Island, located some 35 kilometres off the coast, figured in a memorable incident early in the war when Ukrainian border guards stationed there defied Russian orders to surrender, purportedly using colourful language.
US accuses Russia of trying to 'twist history'
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Saturday that Mr Zelenskyy and his people "embody the spirit of those who prevailed during the Second World War".
He accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of trying "to twist history to attempt to justify his unprovoked and brutal war against Ukraine".
"As war again rages in Europe, we must increase our resolve to resist those who now seek to manipulate historical memory in order to advance their own ambitions," Mr Blinken said in a statement issued as the United States and United Kingdom marked the Allied victory in Europe 77 years ago.
The most intense battles in recent days have befallen eastern Ukraine, where the two sides are entrenched in a fierce race to capture or reclaim territory.
ABC/wires
