Moscow-linked bishop asks Putin to release Mariupol defenders.

Metropolitan Onufry, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church's Ukrainian branch, called on the Russian dictator to release them under the "extraction" procedure - a military term for relocating personnel out of a hostile environment. He urged Putin to show humanism to commemorate Easter and Victory Day and suggested that a third country act as a neutral intermediary. The highly fortified Azovstal steel plant, the only pocket of resistance in Mariupol, is being stormed by Russian troops.