UN chief and Russia’s Putin agree on key Ukraine evacuation

By EDITH M. LEDERER
Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Russian President Vladimir Putin have met one-on-one for the first time since Russia invaded Ukraine. And the United Nations says they agreed on arranging evacuations from a besieged steel plant in the battered Ukrainian city of Mariupol. U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric says the Russian leader and U.N. chief discussed evacuations from conflict zones and agreed in principle Tuesday that the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross should be involved in the evacuation of civilians from the Azovstal steel plant where Ukrainian defenders are making a dogged stand in Mariupol, a southeastern city surrounded by Russian forces.