Turkiye has evacuated over 12,300 citizens from Ukraine since start of war

By Faruk Zorlu

ANKARA (AA) – Turkiye has evacuated 12,306 citizens from Ukraine since Russia launched a war on its neighbor, the Turkish foreign minister said Monday.

Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Twitter that 372 additional citizens set off from Ukraine on Monday.

Cavusoglu said 20 are coming to Turkiye from Kyiv via train, while the remaining 352 arrived by bus from Kyiv, Odessa, Lviv, Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia and Chernivtsi.

"Works for the safe evacuation of our citizens continue," he added.

Since Russia began its war against Ukraine on Feb. 24, it has drawn international condemnation, led to financial sanctions on Moscow, and spurred an exodus of global firms from Russia.

At least 406 civilians have been killed and 801 others injured in Ukraine since the beginning of the war, according to UN figures. But the international body has maintained that conditions on the ground have made it "difficult to verify" the true number of civilian casualties.

More than 1.7 million people have also fled to neighboring countries, the UN Refugee Agency said.