The Latest on the War in Ukraine - Day 72

A UN convoy will attempt to evacuate civilians from the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol amid heavy fighting inside the city’s last holdout.

• Russian forces are pushing to take control of the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, the last holdout of Ukrainian resistance in the city, in time for Russia’s May 9 “Victory Day” holiday.
• According to Ukrainian intelligence, Putin plans to use the occasion—the day Russia marks the defeat of Nazi Germany—to claim victory in Mariupol and display concrete battlefield gains.
• Some 200 civilians remained holed up in the steel plant in conditions one UN official called “bleak hell.” A UN convoy is now on its way to try to evacuate the remaining civilians.
• The US reportedly provided intelligence that helped Ukrainian forces sink a key Russian warship in April, a revelation likely to add to worries about a wider conflict between Russia and the US.
• The US and its allies have tried to walk a fine line providing arms and intelligence to Ukrainian forces while trying to avoid provoking a wider conflict with Russia.
• The Biden administration denied an explosive New York Times report yesterday that claimed the US had helped Ukrainian officials kill Russian generals by supplying battlefield intelligence.