A long-awaited effort to evacuate people from a steel plant in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol was underway on Sunday, the United Nations said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a tweet on Sunday afternoon that the first group of about 100 people was headed to Ukrainian-controlled territory.
“Tomorrow we will meet them in Zaporizhzhia. Grateful to our team! Now they, along with #UN, are working on evacuating other civilians from the plant,” he tweeted.
On Sunday, a team from Doctors Without Borders was at a reception center for displaced people in Zaporizhzhia in preparation for the arrival of the UN convoy, if it is successful.
Stress, exhaustion and food shortages are likely to have weakened the health of the civilians who have been trapped underground in the steel plant.
Russia’s high-stakes offensive on Ukraine’s southern coast and the country’s eastern industrial heartland has Ukrainian forces fighting village by village and more civilians fleeing airstrikes and artillery shelling as war draws closer. at their gates.
UN humanitarian spokesman Saviano Abreu told The Associated Press that the operation to remove people from the Azovstal steel plant was being carried out with the International Committee of the Red Cross and in coordination with Ukrainian and Russian officials.
Some 100,000 people are believed to still be in the blockaded Mariupol, including up to 1,000 civilians who took refuge with some 2,000 Ukrainian fighters under a sprawling Soviet-era steel plant that is the only part of the city not occupied by the Russians. .
Abreu described the situation as “very complex” and did not give more details.
Zaporizhzhia, a city about 141 miles (227 km) northwest of Mariupol, is the expected destination of the evacuation effort.
Zaporizhzhia was the destination of Mariupol residents who managed to flee the city on their own when previous evacuations organized by the Red Cross and Ukraine had to be canceled due to ongoing shelling or concerns about the safety of the route.
The UN said the convoy to evacuate civilians started on Friday and traveled some 230 kilometers (140 miles) before reaching the plant in Mariupol on Saturday morning.
Like other evacuations, the success of the Mariupol mission depended on Russia and its forces going through a long series of checkpoints before reaching the Ukrainians.
People who have fled Russian-occupied areas have sometimes described having their vehicles shot at. Ukrainian officials have repeatedly accused Russian forces of bombing evacuation routes that both sides agreed on.
Russian forces have embarked on a major military operation to seize significant parts of southern and eastern Ukraine following their failure to capture kyiv.
Mariupol, a port city on the Sea of Azov, is a key target due to its strategic location near the Crimean peninsula, which Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014.
“All the leaders of the free world know what Russia has done to Mariupol. And Russia will not go unpunished for this,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his late-night video address.
He warned that Russia was “assembling additional forces for new attacks against our army in the east of the country.”
Limited evacuations of the city took place on Saturday, but details were unclear given the number of parties involved in the negotiations and the volatile situation on the ground.
The Russian Defense Ministry said a total of 46 people, a group of 25 and another of 21, were evacuated from areas near the Azovstal plant.
A senior official from the Azov Regiment, the Ukrainian unit defending the Azovstal steelworks, said on Saturday that 20 civilians had been evacuated from the steelworks.
In a video posted on the regiment’s Telegram channel, the regiment’s deputy commander, Sviatoslav Palamar, called for the evacuation of wounded Ukrainian fighters and civilians.
“We do not know why they are not taken away and their evacuation to Ukrainian-controlled territory is not discussed,” he said.
The UN has not confirmed that people were able to leave Mariupol on Saturday.
In his late-night video address on Saturday night, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Russia was “assembling additional forces for new attacks on our military in the east of the country.”
A senior official from the Azov Regiment, the Ukrainian unit defending the steelworks, said on Saturday that 20 women and children had been evacuated from the plant.
Civilians have taken refuge in a maze of underground tunnels while the plant has been under siege.
In a video posted on the regiment’s Telegram channel, Deputy Commander Sviatoslav Palamar called for the evacuation of wounded Ukrainian fighters and civilians.
“We do not know why they are not taken away and their evacuation to Ukrainian-controlled territory is not discussed,” he said.
Getting a full picture of the unfolding battle in eastern Ukraine has been difficult because airstrikes and artillery shelling have made it extremely dangerous for reporters to move.
In addition, both the Ukrainian and Moscow-backed rebels have introduced strict restrictions on reporting from the combat zone.
But Western military analysts have suggested that the offensive in the Donbas region, which includes Mariupol, was going much slower than planned.
So far, Russian troops and separatists appear to have made only minor gains in the month since Moscow said it would concentrate its military force in the east.
The Mariupol city council later said Monday was the scheduled start date for a wide-ranging UN-backed evacuation of its civilians, in addition to those sheltering at the steel plant.
The city council also confirmed in a social media post on Telegram that some civilians were being evacuated from the Azovstal steelworks on Sunday, highlighting the support of the Red Cross, and said the broader evacuation of the strategic port city was delayed for reasons of security.
Reference-www.irishexaminer.com