Qome 80 civilians were evacuated from the Azovstal metallurgical complex in Mariupol, a besieged port in southeastern Ukraine, on Sunday (May 1st). According to the Russian ministry, “those who wanted to leave for areas controlled by the kyiv regime were handed over to UN representatives”. The evacuation operation of civilians from the Azovstal steel complex in Mariupol continued on Sunday, in coordination with the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Their final destination must be Zaporijjia, a large Ukrainian city located 200 km west of Mariupol where they will be welcomed tomorrow. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, nearly 50 civilians left Azovstal. According to the Russian press agencies, the civilians evacuated from this gigantic steel complex, where the last Ukrainian fighters are entrenched to face the Russian army which has besieged Mariupol since the beginning of March, have been installed in a camp of tents in Bezimennoye, a city under Russian control east of Mariupol. The Defense Ministry released video of Sunday’s evacuations showing civilians arriving by bus in Bezimennoye, where they were being picked up by ICRC and UN officials as Russian soldiers looked on.
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Multiple failed attempts
Since the beginning of the war on February 24, thousands of civilians have been able to leave Mariupol, a port city populated before the war by half a million inhabitants. This strategic city is now under Russian control, after weeks of bombing which almost completely destroyed it. This is the first time, after multiple failed attempts, that civilians entrenched in the Azovstal complex, the last pocket of Ukrainian resistance crushed by Russian bombs, can get out. Also in eastern Ukraine, four civilians were killed and seven injured on Sunday in shelling on Lyman, a town near the front line and under threat of a Russian assault. The Ukrainian army recently had to withdraw in the face of the advance of Russian troops, to reposition itself on the outskirts.