(Kyiv) More than 3,000 people have been “rescued” from Mariupol, a city in southeastern Ukraine besieged by Russian forces, said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky via a video broadcast overnight from Friday to Saturday.
Posted at 7:28 p.m.
“Today (Friday), the humanitarian corridors functioned in three regions: Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhia. We managed to save 6266 people, including 3071 from Mariupol,” he said.
On Friday evening, AFP observed around 30 evacuation buses enter the town of Zaporizhia, some of them carrying people who had fled Mariupol on their own and then been taken by bus to the territory controlled by Ukraine.
These residents of Mariupol had managed to reach the city of Berdiansk, occupied by Russian forces, where they had been taken care of by the convoy, according to testimonies of arrivals to AFP and official officials.
It is unclear if Mr. Zelensky referred to the same people in his video.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which was to take part in the evacuation, announced on Friday that its team sent to Mariupol had to turn back, the planned evacuation of thousands of civilians from this port city besieged by the Russian forces being “impossible” that day.