More than 3,000 people have been ‘saved’ from Mariupol, Zelensky said

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More than 3,000 people have been rescued from Mariupol, a city in southeastern Ukraine besieged by Russian forces, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video broadcast overnight from Friday to Saturday.

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Today [vendredi], humanitarian corridors operate in three regions: Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporozhya. We were able to rescue 6266 people, including 3071 from Mariupolhe said.

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On Friday night, Agence France-Presse (AFP) journalists noticed about 30 evacuation buses entering the city of Zaporozhye, some of them carrying people fleeing alone from Mariupol. , who was then taken by bus to Ukraine -controlled territory.

These Mariupol residents arrived in the city of Berdiansk, occupied by Russian forces, where they were taken care of by the convoy, according to testimonies of AFP arrivals and official officials.

It is not clear whether Mr. Zelensky referred to the same people in his video.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which will take part in the evacuation, announced on Friday that its team sent to Mariupol would have to return, the planned evacuation of thousands of civilians was impossible today.

Earlier, the information was confirmed by Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk in a video on Telegram.

Right now, as we record this video, buses are on their way to pick up Mariupol residents; 42 buses, safe.

A quote from Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk

We know how much you hope to be saved. Every day we will try and try again to pass until you have a chance to leave the city and, above all, live in peace.added Ms. Vereshchuk.

He said on Thursday that the Ukrainian government was sending 45 buses to evacuate civilians from Mariupol after Moscow announced a ceasefire to allow them to leave.

During the day, the Red Cross and the governor of the Donetsk region said that food and medicine shipments to the besieged city of Mariupol remain blocked, despite Russia’s promises to open a humanitarian corridor.

The humanitarian deliveries, despite all the agreements and promises of the Russian side, were not fulfilledsaid Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko in a televised statement on Friday.

The humanitarian corridor does not work for most.

A quote from Pavlov Kyrylenko, Governor of Donetsk Oblast

The group of International Committee of the Red Crosswhich included three vehicles and nine people, did not reach Mariupol and could not facilitate the safe passage of civilians todaysaid the International Committee of the Red Cross in a statement.

According to International Committee of the Red Cross, the team had to turn around and return to Zaporizhia, 250 kilometers northwest of Mariupol. However, this journey is described as very important due to the situation in the besieged city.

They will try again on Saturday to facilitate the safe passage of civilians from Mariupolpromised by the Red Cross in a statement.

Surrounded by more than a month of Russian forces, the port city of Mariupol is battered daily by Russian artillery.

Thousands of civilians there were deprived of food, medical equipment and all basic necessities for more than a month, forced to live in shelters and underground to protect themselves from bombs.

Mariupol had 400,000 inhabitants before the war. About 160,000 are still there, according to municipal authorities.

The UN is calling for a humanitarian ceasefire

Repeated efforts by the Ukrainian government, NGOs and local authorities to deliver aid to Mariupol residents through a humanitarian corridor have all failed so far, with Kyiv and Moscow blaming each other.

Friday morning, a deputy mayor of Mariupol assured that the besieged city is still closed to anyone who wants to enter and it stays. very dangerous for whoever tried to leave him.

Petro Andryushchenko said Russian forces have been blocking the delivery of any humanitarian aid since Thursday to residents trapped by lawsuits in the city.

The Under-Secretary General of the United Nations (UN) for Humanitarian Affairs, Briton Martin Griffiths, will travel to Moscow on Sunday to take from the Russians a humanitarian ceasefire in Ukraine, the head of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, announced on Friday.

Strike against a fuel depot in Russia

This outcry from the Kremlin can be attributed to the bombing of a fuel depot on Russian territory that took place over the past few hours.

A Russian official on Friday accused Ukraine of attacking a helicopter oil depot in the city of Belgorod, in western Russia, about forty kilometers from the Ukrainian border.

A fire at an oil depot occurred due to the airstrike of two Ukrainian army helicopters that entered Russian territory at low altitude.said in his Telegram account the governor of the Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov.

With information from France Media Agency, at Reuters

Source: Radio-Canada

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