The UN coordinator in Ukraine announced today that she is leaving for the southern part of the country in order to prepare an effort to remove people from Mariupolwhich is almost entirely controlled by Russian forces.
“I’m going to Zaporizhia to prepare, I hope, for the evacuation from Mariupol,” a strategically important port bombed and besieged by Russians in southeastern Ukraine, he said. Osnat Lubrani on Twitter.
Hundreds of fighters and Ukrainian civilians, including dozens of children, are trapped, according to Kyiv, in the huge Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, the last stronghold of Ukrainian forces in the city, whose mayor estimated at least 20,000 is the record of the battles.
No attempt to evacuate Azofstal has not succeeded so far.
In all, about 100,000 civilians remain in Mariupol, whose population was about half a million before the start of the Russian invasion in late February, according to Ukrainian authorities.
“The enemy is bombing en masse and blocking our units near the Azofstal factory”said in its daily report the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense.
The commander of the 36th Marine Corps Marine Corps, Sergei Volinskymade a new appeal for help yesterday, Wednesday, emphasizing that he has with him 600 wounded soldiers and hundreds of civilians.
The UN said on Tuesday that President Vladimir Putin has accepted “in principle” the involvement of the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross in the evacuation of civilians detained in Azofstal.
The announcement came after a meeting in Moscow on Tuesday Putin with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterreswho arrived in Kyiv today.
Russia is not allowing the wounded Ukrainian fighters to leave Azovstal, the local governor said today.
Pavlo Kirilenko, governor of Donetsk province, also said that Russia does not allow the creation of humanitarian corridors to evacuate civilians from the area. He said, however, that only 370,000 people remained in the Ukrainian-controlled areas of Donetsk province from 1.67 million before the Russian invasion.
Russia denies targeting civilians in the invasion.
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