About 20 women and children were evacuated from the Azovstal steel mill cast in Mariupol, according to a Ukrainian commander at the plant and Russian state media.
The news comes as the United Nations is working to broker a ceasefire to allow hundreds of trapped civilians and Ukrainian fighters to escape the factory, the last bastion of resistance in the besieged city of Mariupol. fin.
In a video posted to Telegram, Captain Svyatoslav Palamar, deputy commander of the Azov regiment at the plant, said that after hours of waiting, an evacuation convoy arrived at an agreed location on Saturday to deliver civilians from the factory ruins. to a safe place.
He added that he hoped they would be taken to Zaporizhzhia, a city in the northwest still under Ukrainian control. He told The New York Times that evacuation efforts would resume Sunday if the Russians “didn’t start shooting anymore.” Steel factory, a large complex with a system of bunkers underneath it, served as a shelter for countless people for weeks, as Russian forces shelled and closed Mariupol.
Captain Palamar said that Russian bombardment of caves made it difficult to evacuate civilians and that special equipment was needed to help more people. He did not provide further details.
Russia’s TASS . news agency said one of its reporters at the scene reported that 25 people – including six children – emerged from the factory. RIA Novosti, a Russian state news agency, same report.
The vast Azovstal factory has become the last refuge for thousands of trapped Ukrainian soldiers and civilians. Russian troops controlled the rest of the city, and fighting continued around the factory. Ukrainian officials have begged for a ceasefire to allow evacuations, saying little food or water remains inside and time is running out.
Attempts to establish safe evacuation corridors have been repeatedly thwarted by Russian shelling.
In the past few days, Ukrainian forces at the steel complex yes posted a video on social media calls attention to the dire situation there for the displaced civilians, especially women and children.
