The Latest Breaking News from Mariupol

LVIV, Ukraine — With full control of the beleaguered port city of Mariupol in hand, Russian forces kept up their assault Tuesday on eastern Ukraine, now the focus of a grinding conflict that bears the hallmarks of a grim war of attrition.

WASHINGTON — Russian President Vladimir Putin declared his forces had conquered the strategic Ukrainian port of Mariupol a month ago. Only now, however, does that seem to be true.

Over 50 of the soldiers evacuated were "seriously wounded," Ukraine's military said.

Hundreds of Ukrainian fighters defending the last holdout in Mariupol were evacuated to areas controlled by Russian-backed separatists and officials worked Tuesday to get the rest out, signaling the beginning of the end of a siege that became a symbol of Ukrainian resistance. Russia called the operation a mass surrender.

The defenders of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol changed the course of the war with Russia by holding out for 82 days, Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said on Tuesday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin looks poised to take full control of Ukraine's southeastern port city of Mariupol after the apparent surrender of the last Ukrainian forces holed up at a vast steel works.

Ukraine is working on "further stages" of the evacuation of fighters defending the Azovstal steel plant in the southern city of Mariupol, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said on Tuesday.

Hundreds of Ukrainian fighters surrendered to an uncertain fate on Tuesday after weeks holed up in the bunkers and tunnels below Mariupol's Azovstal steel works as the most devastating siege of Russia's war in Ukraine drew to a close.

A 13-second clip is claimed to show two BMP-2 IFV tanks put out of action during Vladimir Putin's assault on Donbas, as Ukraine claims Russian forces have lost more than 2,200 tanks since the invasion started