More than 260 Ukrainian soldiers were evacuated from the besieged Azovstal steel plant in the port city of Mariupol, Ukraine's Deputy Defence Minister Ganna Malyar said on Monday local time.
"53 heavily wounded (soldiers) were evacuated from Azovstal to the medical mortgage near Novoazovsk for medical aid," Malyar said in a statement.
Another 211 were taken out through the humanitarian corridor to Olenivka, she added.
Both Novoazovsk and Olenivka are now under the control of Russian troops and Russia-backed separatists.
"An exchange procedure will be carried out for their further return home," Ms Malyar noted.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said "we hope to save the lives of our boys".
"I want to underline: Ukraine needs its Ukrainian heroes alive. This is our principle," he said in a video statement late Monday.
Ukraine's general staff said the soldiers in Mariupol "performed their combat task" and now the main goal is to "save the lives of personnel".
By holding the Azovstal plant, Ukrainian troops did not allow Russians to rapidly capture the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, a statement on Facebook said.
"Defenders of Mariupol are the heroes of our time. They are forever in history," it added.
The steelworks was the last Ukrainian-held bastion in the once-prosperous port, now in ruins after months of Russian siege that Ukraine says killed tens of thousands of people.
Since February, Mariupol's devastation has become a symbol both of Ukraine's ability to withstand Russia's invasion, and of Russia's willingness to destroy Ukrainian cities that hold out.
In a video accompanying the Azov Regiment statement, one of the unit's senior commanders, Denys Prokopenko, said: "The main thing is to realise all the risks, is there a plan B, are you fully committed to that plan which must allow for fulfilling the assigned tasks and preserve the lives and health of personnel?"
"This is the highest level of overseeing troops. All the more so when your decision is endorsed by the highest military command."
Mr Prokopenko did not spell out what action the defenders were taking. The video was released hours after Russia said it had agreed to evacuate wounded Ukrainian soldiers to a medical facility in the Russian-controlled town of Novoazovsk.
Apart from the steelworks, Mariupol is entirely in Russian hands after a siege that left residents huddled in basements with no food and water and streets littered with dead bodies.
Moscow denies having targeted civilians. The United Nations and Red Cross both estimate thousands of civilians died, with the true toll still uncounted.
The last defenders, including many who were wounded, had been holding out for weeks in bunkers and tunnels built to withstand nuclear war, deep beneath Azovstal, one of the largest metallurgical plants in Europe. Civilians were evacuated from inside the plant earlier this month.
A woman takes part in a rally to call EU countries to "stop buying Russian gas and save defenders of Azovstal" as EU Foreign Affairs ministers hold a meeting over the war in Ukraine on 16 May, 2022 near the European Council headquarters in Brussels. Source: Getty / KENZO TRIBOUILLARD/AFP via Getty Images
Earlier, the wife of an Azov Battalion member had described conditions at the plant: "They are in hell. They receive new wounds every day. They are without legs or arms, exhausted, without medicines," Natalia Zaritskaya said.
Putin climbdown over NATO
Earlier on Monday, Vladimir Putin appeared to climb down from Russian threats to retaliate against Sweden and Finland for announcing plans to join NATO.
"As far as expansion goes, including new members Finland and Sweden, Russia has no problems with these states - none. And so in this sense there is no immediate threat to Russia from an expansion to include these countries," Putin said.
The comments appeared to mark a major shift in rhetoric, after years of casting NATO enlargement as a direct threat to Russia's security, including citing it as a justification for the invasion of Ukraine itself.
Just hours before Mr Putin spoke, Russia's deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, said Finland and Sweden were making a mistake that would have far-reaching consequences: "They should have no illusions that we will simply put up with it."
A handout picture made available by Regiment Azov press service shows an injured Ukrainian serviceman in a shelter at the Azovstal Iron and Steel Plant in Mariupol, Ukraine, 10 May, 2022. Source: AAP / Dmytro 'Orest' Kozatskyi/Azov Special Forces Regiment / HANDOUT/EPA
"The expansion of military infrastructure into this territory would certainly provoke our response. What that (response) will be - we will see what threats are created for us," Putin said.
Finland and Sweden, both non-aligned throughout the Cold War, say they now want the protection offered by NATO's treaty, under which an attack on any member is an attack on all.
"We are leaving one era behind us and entering a new one," Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson said, announcing plans to formally abandon militarily non-aligned status - a cornerstone of national identity for more than 200 years.
Kjell Engelbrekt, professor of political science at the Swedish Defence University, said Moscow now had few military options left to follow through on its previous "very assertive" rhetoric demanding the Nordics never join NATO.
A senior US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Washington had seen no indications Russia was moving troops or equipment closer to the border with Finland.
Ukraine troops reach border
Moscow calls its invasion a "special military operation" to rid Ukraine of fascists, an assertion Kyiv and its Western allies say is a baseless pretext for an unprovoked war.
Now nearly three months old, it has so far been a military disaster for Moscow, with its troops forced out of the north and the environs of Kyiv in late March. A Ukrainian counterattack in recent days has driven Russian forces out of the area near Kharkiv, the biggest city in the east.
Ukraine's defence ministry said on Monday troops had advanced all the way to the Russian border, about 40 km north of Kharkiv.
The successes near Kharkiv could let Ukraine attack supply lines for Russia's own main offensive, grinding on further south in the Donbas region, where Moscow has been launching mass assaults for a month achieving only small gains.
In a video message, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy hailed the achievement and thanked the troops: "I am very grateful to you from all Ukrainians, from everyone, from myself, from my family, my gratitude is unlimited."
