about 200 civilians remain traps inside the sprawling azovstaal plant. ukraine s president says authorities are doing everything they can to get people out. translator: russian shelling and assault on as-zovstal does t stop. but civilians need to be taken out. women, children. many children who are still there. just imagine this hell and there are children. more than two months of constant shelling. bombing. and constant death nearby. mr. zelenskyy said evacuations from the southern part city are ongoing, but he didn t say how many people left mariupol on thursday. the red cross says more than 300 people are believed to be from mariupol and other nearby areas arrived in zaporizhzhia on wednesday. a ukrainian commander says wounded soldiers inside the azovstal steelworks are dying in terrible agony but those who are able are fighting to defend the plant. more now from cnn s isa soares. reporter: ukrainian soldiers trapped in the azovstal plant sing the army s battle hy
gardens. a lot were burned. no one should be making idle comments about the use of nuclear weapons. welcome to the show, it is friday, april 29, and officials say an operation is planned to get civilians out of the besieged azovstal steel plant in mariupol, that is expected to happen today we re being told, but they didn t provide any further details. as soon as we have more of those details, of course we ll bring them to you. h hundreds of civilians have been holed up there for weeks. the plant was hit on wednesday night with what ukrainian officials say was the heaviest russian airstrikes yet. meantime volodymyr zelenskyy is calling for a strong response to russian strikes on kyiv while the u.n. secretary-general was still in the capital. the strikes caused damage to an apartment building injuring at least ten people. and military says that heavy shelling by russian forces is continuing along the entire line of contact in the eastern region s as you see on the map. and
them into custody. if true, this would be a violation of a core principles of the laws of war. isa soares is live on the ground in lviv, ukraine this morning. these revelations come as the offensive on the ground continues to heat up. what more can you tell us? reporter: good morning to you, laura. let me start on the battlefield because you are right, we are hearing of intense shelling right across the east of ukraine. we have heard from a ukrainian general who have told us in the last few hours the russian forces continue to exert intense fire across three regions. he said that the russian forces are focusing in one area in particular, and that is in what he seems to be a staging ground as they try to go into donetsk and luhansk. that is where the offensive is taking place. if i focus your attention on luhansk, we have new video coming in where a hospital really taking a hit, severe hit. and this is a main hospital that we have seen operating in that area. we know that
about five hours from what russia s defense ministry calls a ceasefire offer in the port city of mariupol. but ukraine fightered holed up there say it s really just a demand for surrender and they will not give up. russian media released drone video of the steel factory. ukraine says hundreds of civilians are taking shelter there as well. marine commander says about 500 wounded service members are also there, left to rot without medical care. russia s assault on mariupol is a key part of its offensive in ukraine s industrial heartland known as the donbas. moscow says it wants to liberate the region from ukrainian nationalists. new video shows some of the damage of a shopping center and grocery store in luhansk. the camera pans across the street, another building destroyed by strikes. and farther to the north in kha kharkiv, graphic video which we also need to show you. russian shelling killed at least three people and wounded 16 others. ukraine s president says incoming fire
areas that were hit by these five missiles. at least missile strikes according to the mayor here, what those targets were. we re also told by the city officials that emergency crews are responding to the areas that were targeted in this latest attack. they are now on the scene. we have no word at this point on casualties. we don t know what was hit. we do not know if anybody has been killed. those details, we ll get them to you as soon as we know them. at this point what we can confirm is that there were five loud explosions which were heard i heard them, i counted them. one after the other. within the last 40, 45 minutes. and now we have plumes of smoke rising over a number of locations from the city. this is an area which has been spared the worst of the russian military assault for the most part. the last attack as i said being march 26th. there was another missile strike, russian air strike on a military facility not far from here and close to the polish border you abou