The Latest Breaking News from Donetsk

With a verdict due Monday in the conflict’s first war crimes trial, Moscow's offensive in eastern Ukraine is only intensifying, with the city of Severodonetsk under "round-the-clock" bombardment as Russian troops attempt its encirclement. The trial in Kyiv -- seen as a public test of the Ukrainian judicial system's independence…

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President accuses Moscow of carrying out ‘senseless bombardment’ in east of country

More than half the Ukrainian fighters in the bunkers below the Azovstal steel plant have surrendered, the leader of the Russian-backed rebel Donetsk region said on Thursday, and the International Committee of the Red Cross is registering them.

After months of fighting and shelling, Ukraine has ended its combat mission in Mariupol, and its remaining soldiers have been evacuated to Russian-held territory.

Ukrainian fighters who surrendered at the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol were taken to a hospital at Novoazovsk in the breakaway Donetsk republic, the Russian defence ministry said on a video on Wednesday.

Top-ranking Ukrainian commanders have not yet surrendered from the labyrinth of bunkers and tunnels below the Azovstal steel works in Mariupol, the leader of the Russian-backed separatist region of Donetsk said on Wednesday.

Donetsk separatist leader Denis Pushilin said that a court would decide the fate of the Ukrainian fighters who had surrendered at the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, a local media outlet reported.

President Biden pledges his support and said the US ‘will work’ with the two countries in case of ‘aggression’.