Evacuation of civilians from Ukraine's Mariupol continues: UN

By Beyza Binnur Donmez

ANKARA (AA) - The evacuation of civilians who are trapped at the Azovstal steel plant in Ukraine's city of Mariupol continues, the UN said Sunday.

"A safe passage operation to evacuate civilians from the Azovstal steel plant is ongoing today, Sunday 1 May. The efforts are coordinated by the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), in coordination with the parties to the conflict," Saviano Abreu, a spokesman for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said in a statement.

"It was agreed with both parties to the conflict that civilians who had been stranded for nearly two months in Azovstal -- women, children and the elderly -- will be evacuated to (Zaporizhzhia), where they will receive immediate humanitarian support, including psychological services," Abreu added,

He noted that the operations, which began on Friday, are still ongoing, so he "will not provide further details at this point, to guarantee the safety of the civilians and humanitarians in the convoy."

Abreu stressed that the UN will also continue to push for the safe passage out of Mariupol for all those civilians who wish to leave.

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.