And Ukraine made a symbolic gain as its forces reportedly pushed Russian troops back to the Russian border in the Kharkiv region. 
Fighting rages in Donbas, Lviv hit again
Still, Russian forces pounded targets in the industrial heartland of eastern Ukraine known as the Donbas, and the death toll, already many thousands, kept climbing with the war set to enter its 12th week on Wednesday.
The eastern city of Sievierdonetsk in Donbas came under heavy shelling that killed at least 10 people, said Serhiy Haidai, the governor of the Luhansk region. Proof that while Russia's forces may have been pushed back, it clearly wasn't far enough.
Russia has been plagued by setbacks in the war, most glaringly in its failure early on to take the capital of Kyiv. But it is impossible to unblock Azovstal by military means." The steel mill's defenders got out as Moscow suffered another diplomatic setback in its war with Ukraine, with Sweden and Finland deciding to seek NATO membership. It's our principle," he said. "We cannot rule out that Sweden will be exposed to, for instance, disinformation and attempts to intimidate and divide us."
. Patta and her team heard shelling throughout the morning. The Ukrainian military avoided using the term "surrender" to describe the effort to pull out of the steel plant, but Russia declared it just that."Over the past 24 hours, 265 militants laid down their arms and surrendered, including 51 heavily wounded," the Russian Ministry of Defense announced in a briefing on Tuesday, saying those in need of medical care were transferred to a hospital in the pro-Russian rebel-held town of Novoazovsk. 
"The work to bring the guys home continues, and it requires delicacy and time," Zelenskyy said.
"Thanks to the defenders of Mariupol, Ukraine gained critically important time to form reserves and regroup forces and receive help from partners," Deputy Ukrainian Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said. Much of the fighting has shifted to the Donbas but also has turned into a slog, with both sides fighting village-by-village.
Finland and Sweden's NATO bid
Away from the battlefield, Sweden's decision to seek NATO membership followed a similar decision by neighboring Finland in a historic shift for the counties, which were non-aligned for generations.
Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson said her country would be in a "vulnerable position" during the application period and urged her fellow citizens to brace themselves.
"Russia has said that it will take countermeasures if we join NATO," she said.
Last Nuremberg prosecutor: Putin "certainly" a war criminal
They were taken under escort by pro-Russian forces to territory held by those rebels, with Ukraine hoping for a prisoner exchange while rescue attempts continued for those still underground.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the evacuation to separatist-controlled territory was done to save the lives of the fighters who endured weeks of Russian assaults in the maze of underground passages below the hulking Azovstal steelworks."Ukraine needs Ukrainian heroes to be alive. An Associated Press team in Lviv, which was under an overnight curfew, said the sky west of the city was lit up by an orange glow.
Russia pushed back from Kharkiv
But Ukrainian troops also advanced as Russian forces pulled back from around the northeastern city of Kharkiv in recent days.
Russia called it a surrender, and there was no doubt that Moscow and its proxy forces in Ukraine were in full control of the strategic southern port city — even if much of it has been razed to the ground.
CBS News correspondent Debora Patta reports the fighters held out for 82 days under brutal conditions in the steelworks, becoming a collective symbol of Ukraine's resistance and Russia's merciless tactics in the war. "They fulfilled all their tasks. But overnight, dozens of buses were seen leaving the plant carrying the bedraggled forces away, many in urgent need of medical care. An unknown number of fighters stayed behind, but reports by local media outlets suggested more were preparing to accept evacuation into pro-Russian territory. In the Donetsk region, Gov. Ukrainian officials said the fighters had "completed their mission" and there was no way the country's forces could free the plant from Russia's grasp by military means. Then they placed it on the ground while a dozen of the soldiers posed next to it, including one with belts of bullets draped over a shoulder.
CBS News' Patta and her team visited the town of Derhachi on Tuesday, which is about as close as the Russian ground forces got to Kharkiv — less than a mile away from Ukraine's second city.
Despite their retreat, they can still inflict terrible damage. Efforts were underway Tuesday to evacuate the last of the Ukrainian forces who spent weeks holed-up inside the Azovstal steel plant in the ruined port city of Mariupol. Mayor Vyacheslav Zadorenko told CBS News that a cultural center used as a distribution hub for humanitarian aid was hit twice in the past week alone. Witnesses counted at least eight blasts accompanied by distant booms, and the smell of burning was apparent some time later. The situation remains critical in four nearby villages still under Russian control. Pavlo Kyrylenko said on Facebook that nine civilians were killed in shelling.The western Ukrainian city of Lviv was rocked by loud explosions early Tuesday.
"They are 'liberating us from the Nazis,'' the mayor told Patta, mocking Vladimir Putin's excuse for the war in Ukraine, "but in reality, they are 'liberating' us from the peaceful life we used to have."That peace was still very much under threat on Tuesday. Zelenskyy thanked the soldiers who reportedly pushed them all the way to the Russian border in the Kharkiv region.
Video showed Ukrainian soldiers carrying a post that resembled a Ukrainian blue-and-yellow-striped border marker.
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