2,000 civilian vehicles leave Ukraine's besieged Mariupol on evacuation route

By Jeyhun Aliyev

ANKARA (AA) - At least 2,000 civilian vehicles have left the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol using “unofficial” evacuation routes, a source from the Mariupol City Council told Anadolu Agency on Tuesday.

"We have an unofficial corridor for private cars," the source said on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Saying that people are using the Mariupol-Manhush-Berdyansk-Tokmak-Vasylivka-Zaporizhzhya route for evacuation, the source added that "people just take private cars and go by this route without any guarantee."

So far it has gone “successfully," the source added.

Ewan Watson, a spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross, said the situation for hundreds of thousands of people in the southeastern port city of Mariupol on the coast of the Sea of Azov is critical and the people there are “being suffocated.”

“We are still not able to get aid into Mariupol and the situation remains dire and desperate,” said Watson.

Earlier, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that Turkiye is expecting the evacuation of its nationals from Mariupol "today or tomorrow."

Turkiye has evacuated more than 14,800 of its citizens from Ukraine since the war began on Feb. 24, said Cavusoglu, adding that some 300-350 Turkish citizens remain in the region.

Sources at Turkiye’s National Defense Ministry said earlier Tuesday that as a result of coordination with the Russian Defense Ministry on the evacuation of Turks from Mariupol, Russia cleared mines from roads leading out of the city.

The sources said that efforts continue to open up humanitarian corridors and allow for buses and trucks to enter the city.