Reporter Raquel Camila

  Ukraine said a new attempt was under way on Friday to evacuate scores of civilians trapped in a heavily-bombed steel plant in the city of Mariupol, after bloody fighting with Russian forces thwarted efforts to bring them to safety the previous day. On Thursday, Boris Johnson said the UK will “continue to intensify” efforts to assist Ukraine for as long as the help is needed. Addressing a fund-raising event hosted by the Ukrainian embassy in London, the prime minister said Russian President Vladimir Putin will “never break” the spirit of the Ukrainian people, Downing Street said. To know more :  https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/2022/02/18/russia-ukraine-latest-news/

  Russia’s Defense Ministry renewed its call to the Ukrainian soldiers remaining in the area of the   Azovstal steel plant , the main stronghold in the besieged port city of Mariupol, to lay down their arms and surrender by Wednesday, state news agency TASS reported. The ministry said it will observe a ceasefire in the area of Azovstal, which will come into effect from midnight Moscow time on April 20. It added that not a single Ukrainian soldier had accepted the same offer of surrender it presented on Tuesday. “As of 22:00 Moscow time on April 19, no one used the indicated corridor,” the head of the National Defense Control Center of the Russian Federation, Colonel-General Mikhail said. Russia had earlier said it opened a “humanitarian corridor for the withdrawal of Ukrainian servicemen and militants of nationalist formations who voluntarily laid down their arms from Azovstal.” The Azovstal steel plant is sheltering thousands of soldiers and civilians and is one of the last s...