Ukraine plans to open a humanitarian corridor for civilians to leave Mariupol, the besieged southeastern city where Russia began bombing the city’s Azovstal steel plant this week.
The government has reached an agreement on a corridor for the removal of civilians from the city at 2 pm, said on Wednesday Irina Vereshchuk, Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine.
Buildings in Mariupol damaged during Russian siege of southeastern Ukrainian city: humanitarian corridor must allow civilians to flee the city on Wednesday © REUTERS / Alexander Ermochenko
“Given the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Mariupol, today we will direct our efforts in this direction,” Vereshchuk wrote on the social media platform Telegram. “We managed to agree in advance on a humanitarian corridor for women, children and the elderly.
She said changes in the corridor could occur “due to the very difficult security situation”.
Several attempts to evacuate civilians from the city failed due to mistrust between warring parties after Russian troops surrounded and bombed the city and cut off power, water, heat and other basic services in early March. It was not immediately clear whether the corridor announced by Vereshchuk had Russian support.
According to Ukrainian authorities, Russia has started using bombs to blow up bunkers on and near the Azovstal steel plant, the last area of the city under Ukrainian military control. They said civilians, including children, were hiding from the bombings along with fighters in shelters under the sprawling complex, one of Europe’s largest steel plants.
The Ukrainian military said in an update on Wednesday’s combat operations that the main Russian efforts were “focused on capturing the city of Mariupol, continuing the attack in the area of the Azovstal plant.”
Sergei Volina, commander of the 36th Marine Brigade of Ukraine in Mariupol, among the last Ukrainian troops in the city, released a video on Tuesday pleading for international action to “rescue Mariupol”. He included the hashtags #PopeActNow and #KidsOfCatacombs.
The allegations of the Ukrainian military have not been verified independently.
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