Atieh Alavi

Nearly 700 more Ukrainian soldiers surrendered at the Mariupol steelworks in the past 24 hours, Russia said on Wednesday, but leaders were reported to still be holed up inside.

The first commercial flight in nearly six years took off from Yemen’s capital on Monday, a major step forward in a peace process that has provided rare relief from a Saudi-led war.

Russian troops are withdrawing from Ukraine’s second-largest city after weeks of heavy fighting, the Ukrainian military said Saturday as Kyiv and Moscow’s forces engaged in a grinding battle for the country’s east.

Ukraine said a new attempt had begun on Friday to evacuate scores of civilians trapped in a ruined steel works in the city of Mariupol, following bloody fighting with Russian forces the previous day.

International Desk

The first commercial flight out of Yemen's capital in six years was indefinitely postponed Sunday, after the Saudi-led coalition waging a war against the country refused to issue permits, the national carrier said.

Russia resumed attacks on the last Ukrainian soldiers holed up in a giant steelworks in Mariupol, a Ukrainian official said on Saturday, days after Moscow declared victory in the southern port city and said its forces did not need to take the factory.

Russia launched its long-awaited all-out operation on east Ukraine on Tuesday, unleashing thousands of troops in what Ukraine described as the Battle of the Donbas, a campaign to take control of two provinces.

Russia said its planes had struck a tank repair factory in the capital, where an explosion was heard and smoke seen in the southeastern Darnytskyi district, Reuters reported.

More than 4.5 million Ukrainian refugees have fled their country since the Russian “special military operation” began on February 24, according to the United Nations refugee agency.

A string of political developments has occurred in Yemen, enhancing prospects for ending a seven-year-old war waged by Saudi Arabia and a number of its allies against the Ansarullah movement. Days after a two-month cease-fire brokered by the United Nations came to force in Yemen, Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, the self-proclaimed president, stepped aside on Thursday and handed over all his powers to a newly-formed Presidential Leadership Council. In an exclusive interview with Iran Daily, former Iranian ambassador to Yemen Morteza Rahimi said the temporary truce could be a turning point in bringing the Saudi-led aggression to an end.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said recourse to diplomacy and promotion of dialogue constitute the best way to resolve the current crisis in Ukraine, reiterating the Islamic Republic’s opposition to war in any part of the world.

The director general of the Yemen Executive Mine Action Centre (YEMAC) said the Saudi-led military coalition has dropped more than three million cluster bombs on Yemen since the beginning of the devastating war in March 2015.