20 May 2022

May 2022 in brief

Civilians who had sheltered for weeks at Mariupol's Azovstal steelworks began leaving in a convoy coordinated by the UN and the ICRC, and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said more than 600 civilians had been evacuated from Azovstal and other parts of Mariupol by 8 May. ^[1] IOM estimated about 8.02 million people were internally displaced as of 3 May, falling to about 7.1 million by 23 May as some returned home, and UNHCR said more than 5.7 million had fled across Ukraine's borders. ^[1][2] A bomb hit a school sheltering villagers in Bilohorivka, where the Luhansk governor said about 60 people were most likely dead, though AP reported rescuers had then found two bodies. ^[1] UN High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet told a special session of the Human Rights Council that investigators had found 1,000 civilian bodies in Kyiv region alone, and WHO recorded an attack affecting health workers in Mariupol. ^[1][2] Ukraine's General Staff said Russian troops were withdrawing from around Kharkiv after Ukrainian counter-attacks, easing the shelling of the city. ^[1] Russia's defence ministry said the last 531 fighters at Azovstal had surrendered, ending the siege of Mariupol, and Ukraine described the evacuation of its garrison as the completion of its mission. ^[1] A donor conference in Warsaw co-hosted by Poland and Sweden raised a reported $6.5 billion for Ukraine. ^[1]

Written from the records it cites; every figure appears in a cited record.