(Kyiv) All civilian women, children and elderly people have been evacuated from the Azovstal steelworks, the last pocket of resistance by Ukrainian forces against the Russian army in the devastated city of Mariupol, Kyiv announced on Saturday.
Posted at 12:46 p.m.
Associated Press
Smoke billowed Thursday from the steelworks that housed many Mariupol residents.
“The president’s order has been carried out: all women, children and old people have been evacuated from Azovstal. This part of Mariupol’s humanitarian mission is accomplished,” Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said on social media.
On Friday, 50 people, again the most vulnerable civilians, were able to leave the huge steel complex, the last pocket of resistance of the Ukrainian forces in this port city in the south-east.
These operations, which have been taking place for a week under the aegis of the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), have enabled, according to Kyiv, nearly 500 civilians to flee.