The siege of Mariupol, during which Russian forces pounded the port city for nearly two months, has turned into a wasteland with an unknown death toll and thousands of people trying to survive without water, facilities sanitary and without food.
The city is under Russian control, but some fighters and civilians have taken shelter underground in the Azovstal Factories – a sprawling Soviet-era factory founded under Josef Stalin and designed with a maze of bunkers and tunnels to withstand attack.
After a Reuters photographer saw dozens of civilians arriving at a temporary accommodation center on Sunday, the United Nations confirmed that what it calls a safe passage operation to evacuate people from the steel plant was underway. since Saturday.
“The UN confirms that a safe passage operation is underway in the Azovstal steelworks, in coordination with the ICRC and the parties to the conflict,” said UN spokesman Saviano Abreu.
“At this stage, and as the operations are ongoing, we will not share further details, as this could compromise the safety of the civilians and the convoy,” he added.
The Reuters photographer saw civilians arriving in the village of Bezimenne in the Russian-backed Donetsk region, about 30 km east (20 miles) of Mariupol, where they were receiving refreshments and medical care after weeks of suffering.
Young children were among those evacuated from the factory – where people cowered underground, huddled under blankets in the factory’s bunkers and tunnels as shelling tore through their town.
CIVILIANS OF MARIUPOL
Outside the blue tents, two children sit thoughtfully as they wait, the boy playing with a lighter and heavily armed men watching. A woman clasped her hands to her face in emotion. A young woman reached out to pet a cat.
The civilians Reuters saw had been evacuated in a convoy with Russian forces and vehicles bearing United Nations symbols.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said after meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in kyiv on Thursday that intense talks were under way to allow the evacuation of Azovstal.
A United Nations spokesman said he was unable to comment immediately. An assistant to the mayor of Mariupol declared a period of silence, pending official statements on the evacuations.
Pope Francis on Sunday described the war in Ukraine as a “macabre regression of humanity” which makes him “suffer and cry”, calling for the establishment of humanitarian corridors to evacuate those trapped in the Mariupol steelworks.
Russian President Vladimir Putin says the “special military operation” is necessary because the United States was using Ukraine to threaten Russia and Moscow had to defend Russian speakers from persecution.
He claims that Ukraine and Russia are essentially one country. Ukraine claims it is fighting an imperialist land grab by Russia and that Putin’s genocide claims are nonsense.