Russia and Ukraine are evacuating about a hundred civilians from the Azovstal factory area over the weekend. The ceasefire was successful in Mariupol for the first time with the help of the UN and the Red Cross.
The first about a hundred civilians were evacuated from the underground facilities of the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol over the weekend.
They were evacuated by both Ukrainian and Russian forces with the help of the UN and the Red Cross.
Civilians were taken both to the Ukrainian-ruled city of Zaporizhia and to the Russian-controlled area of the village of Bezimenne.
The village is located in the Donetsk region, about halfway east of Mariupol towards the Russian border.
Both bus transports had been agreed with the UN and the Red Cross.
“We didn’t see the sun in a long time”
The village of Bezimenne ended up, among other things Natalia Usmanova, 37, who shared his experiences with a reporter for the news agency Reuters.
– I can not believe this. Two months of darkness. We didn’t see the sun for so long, he commented after getting out of the evacuation bus.
She told her husband who joked on the bus that she would no longer have to carry her needs with a flashlight in the basket.
Usmanova worked at the Azovstal plant and knew that its Soviet-era bomb shelters were a solid act. Still, he was scared.
– When the bunker started to vibrate, I was hysterical. When the bombs fell there, I thought my heart would stop, he said.
According to Usmanova, the underground facilities ran out of oxygen. The closer the bombing came, the more diligently people tried to get out, he said. However, all attempts failed.
– You can’t believe what we experienced – terror, he said.
The woman who got on the Zaporizhia bus said they had not had enough food.
– The kids always wanted to eat. Adults can wait, he said in a video transmitted by Ukraine.
The ceasefire was held for the first time
The evacuation operation was successful because the ceasefire was held in Mariupol for the first time, the President of Ukraine rejoiced Volodymyr Zelenskyi on Sunday.
– Today, for the first time in the entire war, this vital corridor began to operate. For the first time, there was a real ceasefire in this area for two days. More than a hundred civilians have already been evacuated – mostly women and children, Zelenskyi wrote on Twitter.
Hundreds of Ukrainian civilians and soldiers are still trapped under the Azovstal factory site. The huge steel plant has been the last getaway of the Ukrainians in Mariupol. Russian forces have been besieging and bombing the area for weeks.
According to a Ukrainian officer, Russia began firing on Azovstal again on Sunday after the evacuations were completed. Commander of the 12th National Brigade Denis Schlega said According to CNN (switch to another service) On Ukrainian television that “the occupiers used all kinds of weapons.”
The evacuations are scheduled to continue today, Monday.
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