The Russian army has opened a “humanitarian corridor” for the evacuation of Ukrainians stationed at the Azovstal steelworks in the besieged city of Mariupol.

According to the Department of Defense, a temporary ceasefire has been declared to allow the industry to drain. The steelworks is the last stronghold of the Ukrainian resistance in Mariupol and is also home to an unspecified number of civilians, including women and children.

Earlier this morning, Moscow had called on the Ukrainian army to surrender their weapons by noon, which was long since.

“Enough of this senseless resistance,” said the Russian Ministry of Defense.

But the Ukrainian news agency Ukrinform said that the Kyiv secret services intercepted a phone call in which a Russian soldier spoke of the order to destroy Azovstal. “The invaders ignore that civilians are also in industry. The Russians are preparing three-ton ‘surprises’ from the sky,” the security service said on Telegram.

Deputy Sergei Taruta, representing the Donetsk region, where Mariupol is located, condemned the bomb attack on a hospital adjacent to Azovstal. “According to my knowledge, there are 300 people, including children, under the rubble,” he wrote on Twitter.

Mariupol is an important port city in southeastern Ukraine and was devastated during an approximately two-month siege by separatist forces from Russia and Donetsk. Conquering this part of Ukraine is crucial for Moscow, which is trying to establish a land link between the Crimean peninsula and the rebel areas in the Donbass.

Mariupol had a population of about 450,000 before the war, and Ukrainian officials estimate that more than 20,000 people died during the city’s siege.