A new attempt to evacuate civilians from the port city of Mariupol, in southeastern Ukraine and largely controlled by the Russian army, is scheduled for this Saturday, according to Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk.
“Today we try again to evacuate women, children and the elderly“, he said on his Facebook account, adding that civilians had begun to gather near a shopping center in the city and that they expected to start the evacuation around noon local time.
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Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky again demanded on Friday night, on the eve of the Orthodox Easter weekend, a “humanitarian truce” to evacuate civilians from Ukrainian cities besieged by the Russians, starting with Mariupol, under attack by the Russian army since the beginning of March.
Most of this strategic port city on the Sea of Azov is under Russian control, but a last group of Ukrainian fighters are holed up in the Azovstal industrial zone. The latter have been demanding for several days that the women and children be evacuated “with guarantees” of safety.
Ukrainian fighters published a video on Saturday morning in which dozens of women and children are seen underground in the industrial zone. In the video one of the women says that she has been there since the beginning of March.
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Another, with a baby in her arms, explains that she took refuge there because her husband worked in the complex. Several children are also seen saying they want to “go home.” The date on which the video was recorded has not yet been verified, but two women interviewed say it is April 21.
Mariupol, which had about 450,000 inhabitants before the start of the conflict on February 24, has become a martyr citya field of ruins with people locked in cellars and without communication with the outside world.
AFP
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