On Tuesday, Ukraine believed that a first group of evacuees from the rubble of a massive steel plant in the Russian-controlled city of Mariupol would arrive in the Ukrainian-controlled city of Zaporizhzhia.
According to Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boichenko, more than 200 civilians remain in the Azovstal steel plant, where the city’s last defenders are holed up. He estimated that roughly 100,000 residents remained in the port city on the Sea of Azov.
‘The evacuee column is advancing towards Zaporizhzhia.’ On national television, Boichenko said, ‘The evacuation continues. We’re keeping information to a minimum and hoping that the Azovstal evacuees will make it to Ukraine.’
On April 29, the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross launched a joint operation with Ukraine and Russia to evacuate women, children, and the elderly from the steel mills.
As Moscow laid siege to Mariupol, destroying the city in weeks of shelling, the massive Azovstal industrial complex became a haven for both residents and Ukrainian fighters.
On Monday, Tatyana Bushlanova, 64, a distressed Mariupol resident, wiped away tears on a bench near a burnt apartment block, not flinching at the shelling.
A man sat in an apartment building staircase nearby, cooking food over an open fire.
‘You cry when you wake up in the morning. In the evening, you cry. Everything is destroyed, everything is broken, and I have no idea where to go. Now, where should people go? They’re sitting there with young children with small children,’ Bushlanova remarked.
‘It’s not going to stop.’ I’m not sure how I’ll manage to stay here in the winter. We don’t have a roof over our heads, and we don’t have any windows. ‘Everything is extremely difficult,’ she explained.
The steel facilities were shelled by Russian military on Monday.
They were seen using a ‘Grad’ multiple rocket launcher, according to a Reuters witness. The steel plant emitted thick black smoke.
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