Around 100 civilians had been evacuated and were on their way to the Ukrainian-controlled Zaporizhia, said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday. They were expected there on Monday.
“Now we are working with the United Nations to evacuate more civilians from the facility,” Zelenskyy wrote on Twitter. The Russian Defense Ministry put the number of people evacuated on Sunday at 80.
The people were taken to the Russian-controlled village of Besimenne, where they were being cared for. Those who wanted to go to the Ukrainian-controlled area were handed over to representatives of the UN and the Red Cross.
- ZIB 1: ORF reporter Christian Wehrschütz reports on the evacuation of the first civilians from the embattled Azov steelworks in Mariupol on Sunday.
The Mariupol city council said the evacuations should continue on Monday. According to Ukrainian information, around 1,000 civilians are still trapped in the bunkers at the plant. Russia speaks of about 2,500 people, mainly military and “foreign mercenaries”.
As UN spokesman Jens Laerke said, the evacuation is being coordinated with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the conflicting parties Russia and Ukraine. A convoy to rescue the civilians started on Friday and reached Mariupol early on Saturday. The Russian Defense Ministry had previously declared that a “ceasefire” had been declared at the Azov steelworks and that a “humanitarian corridor” had been set up.
The Azov regiment is holed up in the steelworks. The factory is the last bastion of the Ukrainian resistance in the port city of Mariupol, which was largely destroyed by Russian attacks. The Azov regiment reported heavy artillery fire on the installations at night.
Source: Nachrichten
