(Geneva) The evacuation of the Azovstal factory in Mariupol, a besieged port in southeastern Ukraine, “has begun” and around a hundred civilians are heading towards “the territory controlled by Ukraine”, announced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday.
Posted at 10:13 a.m.
Updated at 11:15 a.m.
“The evacuation of civilians from Azovstal has started. A first group of about 100 people is heading towards the territory controlled (by Ukraine). Tomorrow we will welcome them to Zaporijjia,” the Ukrainian president wrote on Twitter.
“The UN confirms that an evacuation operation is underway at the Azovstal steel complex, in coordination with the ICRC and the parties to the conflict,” Jens Laerke, spokesman for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said on Sunday. of the UN, in an email. He stressed that he could not give any other details for security reasons.
Mr. Laerke clarified that “the convoy to evacuate the civilians started on April 29, traveled some 230 kilometers and reached the complex in Mariupol on Saturday morning local time”.
The Russian and Ukrainian parties gave divergent information on this operation to evacuate civilians from what is the last pocket of Ukrainian resistance in Mariupol.
The Russians reported nearly 50 evacuations on Saturday and 40 this Sunday. The Ukrainian Azov regiment, which defends this industrial zone, had rather mentioned “twenty civilians, women and children” evacuated on Saturday.