Women, children, elderly evacuated from Azovstal steel plant, last holdout in Mariupol

BUCHAREST, Romania — Jill Biden on Saturday heard heartbreaking stories from Ukrainian women and children who fled Russia’s war and found safe haven across the border in Romania, and the American first lady praised the Romanian government and relief organizations for the range of humanitarian aid they are providing to refugees.

At a Romanian public school hosting refugee students, Biden saw firsthand the relief efforts to assist some of the 900,000 Ukrainians who have fled to Romania since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24.

Most of those Ukrainians have moved on to other countries, but many — mainly women and children — have remained as the fighting rages.

“We stand with you,” Biden told mothers of some of the students after visiting classrooms where kids ages 5 to 15 attend school.

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy took to his official Telegram account Saturday to again decry the 'barbarism' being committed by Russian military in Odesa.

“Today, the invaders launched a missile strike on Odessa. In a city where almost every street has something memorable, something historical. But for the Russian army, it doesn’t matter. They would only kill and destroy. Odesa? Kharkiv region? Donbas? They do not care," Zelenskyy said. "Only the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the resistance of our people can stop this inhuman invasion. It’s barbarism that has rockets, but has nothing to do with people. Such actions of the Russian occupiers, and especially on the eve of the Day of Remembrance of All Victims of World War II and the Day of Victory over Nazism, should remind every state and every nation that it is impossible to defeat evil once and for all.”

Zelenskyy added, “Last night, the Russian army fired a rocket to destroy the Hryhoriy Skovoroda Museum in Kharkiv region. A rocket… To destroy the museum. Every day of this war, the Russian army does something that is beyond words. But every next day they do something that makes you feel it in a new way.”

MOSCOW — Russia held a dress rehearsal on Saturday for the military parade to commemorate Victory Day on May 9, when the country marks the defeat of Nazi Germany during World War II.

This year’s Victory Day, which falls on Monday, won’t just honor a conflict that ended 77 years ago. Many Russians will be thinking about the thousands of troops in neighboring Ukraine. Signs of support for the military have grown across the country since Feb. 24, with the letter “Z” appearing on billboards and signs in the streets and subways, and on television and social media.

On Saturday, an RS-24 Yars intercontinental ballistic missile rolled through Red Square as part of the rehearsal in Moscow, with warplanes and helicopters flying overhead, troops marching in formation and self-propelled artillery vehicles rumbling past.

The Ukrainian deputy prime minister reported Saturday that all women, children and the elderly have been evacuated from the steel plant in Azovstal. "This part of the Mariupol humanitarian operation has been completed,” Iryna Vereshchuk said.

However soldiers and civilian men remain trapped in the plant.

An “enemy grouping with a white flag ” came out onto the road where civilians were being evacuated from the Azovstal steel plant in the city of Mariupol, a prominent commander of Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine said Saturday.

Alexander Khodakovsky, who leads the “Vostok” battalion, said it was the first “face-to-face contact” made during the “whole time of the Mariupol blockade,” in a post on his Telegram channel that was translated by NBC News. He added that the group had been received by Russian soldiers.

However, the Azov Regiment, an experienced volunteer force with neo-Nazi roots that has been defending the sprawling area around the plant, denied that anyone had surrendered.

It said that white flags were used by both sides to evacuate civilians from the area, in a post on its Telegram channel that was translated by NBC News.

NBC has been unable to independently verify these reports. It is unclear as to whether it is remaining civilians who have surrendered themselves, or Ukrainian forces defending the plant.

First lady Jill Biden lauded the Romanian government for the help they were providing to Ukrainians fleeing the war, but warned it was “just the beginning.”

At a briefing with Romania’s leaders and humanitarian organizations at the U.S. Embassy in the country’s capital Bucharest, Biden called the show of solidarity “amazing,” but said, “I think this is really, unfortunately, just the beginning.”

Biden added that more needed to be done by the U.S. and its allies to assist Ukraine. “We wake up every morning and think ‘this has to end’ but it still keeps going on and on,” she said.

Biden also went to a Romanian public school hosting refugee students. After speaking with a Romanian teacher who described her own experience as a refugee Biden told her, “I hope you know, we stand with you.”

After leaving Romania, Biden will the travel to Slovakia's border with Ukraine where she will spend Mother's Day with refugees.

Russia has lost another ship in its Black Sea fleet, Ukraine's defense ministry said Saturday.

An an unmanned combat aerial vehicle destroyed a Serna landing craft, the defense ministry said on Twitter.

NBC News was unable to verify the claim.

Ukrainian forces successfully sunk the Moskva, considered to be the most powerful ship in the Russian fleet last month.

In the early days of the war, the Moskva was part of what became an iconic incident, when officers on board ordered Ukrainian border guards on Ukraine’s Snake Island to surrender.

“Russian warship, go f--- yourself,” the guards answered. They were captured and later freed in a prisoner exchange.

A “large accumulation” of military supplies from the U.S. and European Union was destroyed at a railway station in the northseastern city of Kharkiv, Russia's defense ministry said in a briefing Saturday.

“Rocket troops and artillery hit 44 control points and 196 strongholds of Ukrainian troops, areas of concentration of manpower and military equipment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine during the night,” the briefing said.

NBC News was not able to verify the claim which came after President Joe Biden announced a further military aid package of $150 billion to Ukraine, amid fears of Russian escalation.