A new attempt to evacuate civilians from the strategic Ukrainian port of Mariupol, besieged by Russian troops, is scheduled for Sunday.
After an abortive attempt on Saturday due to Russian bombing, a humanitarian corridor must be opened at 12 p.m. local time (11 a.m. in Paris) to evacuate civilians from Mariupol and Volnovakha, in the south-east of Ukraine.
Mariupol Municipality, which made the announcement, reports that a temporary ceasefire agreement has been reached with Russian forces in the area. For now, we do not know if the evacuation to the city of Zaporizhia, about three hours away, has started.
On the eleventh day of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Mariupol is under “humanitarian blockade” and know a situation ” very difficult “, said its mayor, Vadym Boïtchenko, on YouTube on Saturday evening. According to him, the bombardments of the last few days have caused “thousands of injured” in this city of 450,000 inhabitants on the shores of the Sea of Azov. The inhabitants have neither water nor food, neither heating nor electricity, according to Laurent Ligozat, emergency coordinator of the NGO Doctors Without Borders. The situation is there “catastrophic”.
The fall of Mariupol would be a turning point in the Russian invasion, launched since February 24. It would allow the junction between the troops coming from annexed Crimea, which have already taken the key ports of Berdiansk and Kherson, and those from Donbass. These consolidated forces could then move up towards central and northern Ukraine.
Find, in this article, the testimonies of the inhabitants of Mariupol:
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