About 100 civilians were evacuated from the Azovstal steelworks complex, the last stronghold of the Ukrainian forces in the city of Mariupol. The announcement was made by President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday 1st after the UN confirmed that an operation was being carried out in the region.
Zelensky said on his Twitter account, “The evacuation of civilians from Azovstal has begun. The first group of nearly 100 civilians is already going to a controlled area. Tomorrow we will meet them in Zaporijgia.”
Russia’s Defense Ministry said 80 civilians had left the industrial zone and were taken to Moscow’s controlled eastern regions. The operation is carried out in coordination with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Russian troops and Ukrainian forces.
The Azovstal industrial estate is the last stronghold of Ukrainian resistance in the Russian-controlled southeastern port city of Mariupol. Living conditions in the network of tunnels beneath the steel mill, where analysts believe hundreds of civilians are staying with Ukrainian fighters, have been described as inhumane. Previous efforts to evacuate civilians have failed.
The Russian Ministry of Defense has released a video of the operation, showing that civilians arriving by bus in the town of Bezimenne, between the Russian border and Mariupol, were met by UN and ICRC envoys under the supervision of Russian soldiers.
The number of civilians evacuated is different: it is not clear where the difference comes from, but the Russian Ministry of Defense had already announced on Saturday (30) that about 50 civilians had left Azovstal.
Attacks in Kharkov and Donetsk
Regional officials announced that eight civilians were killed in bombings in the Kharkiv and Donetsk regions on Sunday, including four in the city of Lyman, which is close to war and is threatened by Russian advances. According to the regional governor, Pavlo Kyrylenko, seven civilians were injured in this city, where the Ukrainian army had recently withdrawn.
In addition, Kyrylenko reported that one civilian was killed in Bakhmut, a town a little far from the fighting, and four others were injured in different parts of eastern Ukraine.
The governor of Kharkiv (northwest), Oleg Sinegubov, announced in Telegram that three civilians were killed and eight others injured in the shelling of other settlements in this city and the region.
Zelensky recently admitted that the situation in the Donbass mining area in eastern Ukraine was “difficult” after it became a prime target for Russian troops entering the country on February 24.
“Barbaric” Bombardment
The fate of Mariupol civilians attracts the attention of world leaders. This Sunday, during the Angelus prayer in St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican, Pope Francis reiterated his call for safe humanitarian corridors to be opened.
“My thoughts are in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, which was bombed and barbarously destroyed. I reiterate my call for safe humanitarian corridors to be opened,” said the Pope.
“Don’t be intimidated by harassers,” Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi said in an interview in Poland after visiting Ukraine on Saturday, where she met with President Zelensky. Pelosi, the third highest-ranking representative of the US government after President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, expressed her country’s solidarity with Ukraine.
“The US government is a leader who gives firm support to Ukraine in the fight against Russian aggression,” the Ukrainian President said in a message containing a video showing the moment he received Pelosi and the American delegation at the entrance to the presidential seat. Presidency in Kiev.
(with information from AFP)
source: Noticias
