United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed in principle to the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) evacuating the factory, during a one-on-one meeting that lasted nearly two hours, on Tuesday.
The sprawling Azovstal complex, nearly destroyed by Russian attacks, is the last pocket of organized Ukrainian resistance in Mariupol.
An estimated 2,000 soldiers and 1,000 civilians are said to be trapped in bunkers under the destroyed building.
Deputy spokesman for the United Nations, Farhan Haq, told reporters, Wednesday, that the United Nations is trying to translate the Guterres-Putin agreement in principle “into an agreement in detail and an agreement on the ground.”
“What we want in the end is to make sure that the ceasefire is respected, which will allow us to transport people safely,” Haq added.
In the same context, Haq said that UN officials were holding follow-up talks on Wednesday with the authorities in Moscow and Kiev “to develop a framework for the timely evacuation of civilians.”
He explained that the exact timing depends on the outcome of discussions between the United Nations Office for Humanitarian Affairs and the Russian Defense Ministry in Moscow as well as between the United Nations Crisis Coordinator for Ukraine, Amin Awad, and the authorities in Kyiv, where Guterres will meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday.
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