Mariupol civilian evacuation begins, 100 taken out of besieged steel plant: Ukraine

By Handan Kazanci

ISTANBUL (AA) – The evacuation of civilians from the besieged Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol has started and around 100 people are on their way to safety, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday.

The civilians are heading to “a controlled area,” Zelenskyy wrote on Twitter.

“Tomorrow we’ll meet them in Zaporizhzhia,” he said, referring to the Ukrainian-controlled city that lies some 220 kilometers (130 miles) northwest of Mariupol.

“Grateful to our team! Now they, together with UN, are working on the evacuation of other civilians from the plant,” he added.

Several hundreds of civilians are believed to have been holed up in bunkers beneath the sprawling steel plant for weeks, along with the last remaining Ukrainian forces in the strategic port city.

After Antonio Guterres’ trip to Moscow this week, the UN said Russian President Vladimir Putin had agreed to a UN-facilitated evacuation operation at the Azovstal plant.

Mariupol has been largely destroyed by Russian forces, who are pushing to form a land link between areas under Russian control in eastern Ukraine and the Crimean Peninsula, which Moscow illegally annexed in 2014.

At least 2,899 civilians have been killed and 3,235 others injured in Ukraine since the war with Russia began on Feb. 24, according to UN estimates. The true toll is feared to be much higher.

More than 5.4 million people have fled to other countries, with some 7.7 million people internally displaced, data from the UN refugee agency shows.