The evacuation of civilians from Marioupolis continues

Hundreds of others continue to remain in bunkers, under the steel factory Azovstal, in the besieged city, which is port in the Azov Sea.

United Nations humanitarian affairs spokesman Saviano Abreu said that efforts to get people out of Azovstal are being made in co-operation with the International Committee of the Red Cross and in co-ordination with Ukrainian and Russian officials.

Russia's Defence Ministry said the number of evacuees is 80 and added that “at that have wanted to leave in areas controlled by the Kiev regime has been handed over to UN and Red Cross representatives”.

Ukraine's National Guard official, Denys Schlevia, said it would take at least two more evacuation efforts to get all civilians out of Azovstal.

“Several dozen young children are still in bunkers under the” plant, he said.

The strategic location of Marioupoli near the Crime Peninsula, which Russia has unfairly annexed from Ukraine in 2014, has made it the target of the Russian fury bombing.

The city, with a population of about 400,000 before the war, has now become rubble.

In the early days of the occupation, Russian forces have attacked a maternity ward there, as well as a theater, where hundreds of people have been reported killed.

In Marioupol, it is believed that there are still about 100,000 people, including about 2,000 Ukrainian fighters in and around the Azovstal complex, which is the only part of the city not occupied by the Russians.

Ukrainian defenders in Azovstal have distributed a video on 30 April, calling for food, water and other supplies.

British intelligence said on Monday that the Russian elite force has suffered so many victims that it will take years to replace them.

According to British intelligence, Russia, when it began its invasion of Ukraine on February 24th, has distributed over 120 battalions, which have represented about 65 percent of all its ground war capabilities.

“more than a quarter of these units have now become inefficient”, British intelligence said.

According to her, some of Russia's most elite units, including the VDV Air Force, have suffered the largest <x0-level damage losses”.

Russia has said that more than a thousand of its soldiers have been killed, but Ukraine claims its losses are much larger than the 20,000 killed soldiers.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the invasion of Ukraine, as he has not received assurances from NATO that he will no longer expand to the east.

The West has strongly condemned the move and imposed several serious sanctions against Russia, while Ukraine is helping with weapons.

Thousands of people are believed to have been killed in combat, while over 5 million have been confirmed as displaced from Ukraine. / REL