German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock paid a surprise visit to Ukraine"s martyred towns of Bucha and Irpin on Tuesday, a day after Russian missiles pounded the strategic port city of Odesa. Earlier, diplomats said the UN Security Council would hold a crisis meeting on Thursday to discuss the worsening humanitarian situation in Ukraine. Follow FRANCE 24"s live blog for all the latest developments. All times are Paris time (GMT+2). More than 1,000 Ukrainian troops, many of them injured, remain in the sprawling Azovstal steelworks in the Russian-controlled port city of Mariupol, Ukraine"s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk has told AFP. "Hundreds are injured. There are people with serious injuries who require urgent evacuation. The situation is deteriorating every day," she added. Earlier, an aide to the mayor of Mariupol said at least a hundred civilians were still trapped in the Azovstal plant, but the information could not be independently verified. Russian troops are accused of massacring hundreds of civilians as they retreated from Bucha, Irpin and other Kyiv suburbs in late March. Images of corpses lying in the streets, some with their hands bound, shocked the world and prompted calls for war crimes charges to be brought against Russia. At least 100 civilians remain trapped in the Azovstal steel works in Mariupol, according to an aide to the city"s mayor. Mariupol has endured the most destructive fighting of the war in Ukraine. The Azovstal plant is the last part of the city still in the hands of Ukrainian fighters. "In addition to the military, at least 100 civilians remain in the (Azovstal) shelters. However, this does not reduce the density of attacks by the occupiers," Mariupol mayoral aide Petro Andryushchenko wrote on the Telegram messaging app. Ukraine had previously indicated that all civilians had left Azovstal, and Russia has said the evacuation of civilians from the plant is complete. Russian missile fire targeting the Black Sea port city of Odesa late on Monday killed one person and wounded five, the Ukrainian military’s southern command has announced. One missile struck a shopping centre and a warehouse, the military said, alleging that the munitions dated back to the Soviet era, making them unreliable in targeting. There’s been increasing concern that Russia is running out of guided munitions, making it more likely they’ll fire unguided rockets which can cause wider collateral damage. The missiles struck as European Council President Charles Michel was visiting Odesa, interrupting a meeting with Ukraine"s Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal. 8:20am: NATO membership would strengthen Nordic defence, says Swedish minister The Nordic region"s defence capabilities would be strengthened if Sweden and Finland joined NATO, allowing joint defence planning within the framework of the alliance, Sweden"s Defence Minister Peter Hultqvist has told Swedish radio. "(If Sweden and Finland join NATO) there will be the effect that we use each others" strengths and advantages and fully complement each other and also carry out operational planning," said Hultqvist, a member of the ruling Social Democrats said. "If so, the effect will be that we become stronger together. This is something that can happen if we choose to join NATO," he told the public broadcaster. The Social Democrats will decide on May 15 whether to drop decades of opposition by the party to NATO membership, a move that would almost certainly lead to Sweden asking to join the 30-nation alliance. Russia"s invasion of Ukraine has sparked a rethink of security policy in both Sweden and Finland. The Finnish president, Sauli Niinisto, is this week expected to announce his support for an application. Aside from the Donbas in the aast, a large swathe of southern Ukraine is currently under Russian control, including most of Kherson region. Russian forces are preventing civilians from leaving the area. Yet thousands have been making journeys fraught with risk, in order to get out. Our correspondent Gulliver Cragg sent this report from Ukrainian-held territory just north of the occupied zone. The UN Security Council is expected to hold a new public meeting on Thursday on Russia"s war in Ukraine, in light of the continuing deterioration of the humanitarian situation, diplomats said Monday. The session, requested by France and Mexico, will be the 16th held by the Security Council since the Russian invasion of February 24, as part of an effort by western states to maintain pressure on Russia, which as a permanent member of the council has the power to block measures it disapproves of. France and Mexico have requested briefings from the UN Department of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) and the United Nations Children"s Fund (Unicef), a diplomat said. — Agencies