Ukraine recovers bodies from steel-plant siege

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy listens to a servicemen report close to the front line in Donetsk region (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office/AP)

Russia has begun returning the bodies of Ukrainian fighters killed at the Azovstal steelworks, the fortress-like plant in the destroyed city of Mariupol where their last-ditch stand became a symbol of resistance against Moscow’s invasion.

Dozens of the dead taken from the bombed-out mill’s now Russian-occupied ruins have been transferred to the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, where DNA testing is under way to identify the remains, according to both a military leader and a spokeswoman for the Azov Regiment.