According to official information, the last women, children and elderly people have been evacuated from the besieged Azovstal steelworks in the Ukrainian port of Mariupol. “This part of the humanitarian operation in Mariupol has been completed,” Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk wrote in the Telegram news service on Saturday. She initially left open whether there were any civilians among the remaining men. The last remaining Ukrainian fighters who are opposing the Russian troops are also holed up on the factory premises.
The pro-Russian separatists fighting alongside Moscow had previously announced the evacuation of 50 civilians. However, more people are said to be holding out in other parts of Mariupol, where more than 400,000 people lived before the war.
Fire breaks of several hours
The most recent evacuation mission came about with the help of the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross. Since Thursday, Russia’s military had assured fire breaks of several hours every day in the completely destroyed city on the Azov Sea. The last one was supposed to end on Saturday night. Observers assume that the Kremlin wants to take Azovstal as soon as possible so that it can announce the conquest of Mariupol next Monday – the 77th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory over Hitler’s Germany.
Notepad