Civilians evacuated from the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol arrive at a temporary accommodation center in the village of Bezimene, Ukraine, on May 6th. (Alexander Ermochenko / Reuters)
Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshchuk said “all women, children and the elderly” had been evacuated from the Azovstal steel plant.
“The president’s order has been carried out,” she said. “This part of the Mariupol humanitarian operation is over.
In brief comments to CNN from the Azovstal plant on Saturday night, local time, one of the Ukrainian defenders of the complex said that the evacuation of civilians was carried out without incident.
The comment was made by the chief of the patrol police in Mariupol Mikhail Vershinin. He did not give details about the number he managed to leave.
Separately, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said that Russian forces continue to blockade Ukrainian troops at the plant and use artillery and tank fire while conducting assault operations.
What Russia says: A high-ranking Russian official has agreed that the evacuation of civilians from the Azovstal steel plant has been completed.
Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev, head of Russia’s National Defense Management Center, said Russia had evacuated a total of 51 Azovstal civilians in co-operation with the United Nations and the Red Cross on May 5th. Mizintsev said the number included only one person evacuated on Saturday.
The Russian account, published by the state news agency TASS, appears to coincide with that of the Ukrainian government.
A total of 51 evacuees are much lower than previous estimates of the number of civilians still detained at Azovstal. As of Saturday morning local time, more than 100 civilians – including children – were still thought to be trapped in the sprawling complex, along with several hundred soldiers, many of whom were injured. It is not known how many men other than Ukrainian soldiers may still be in the sprawling complex.
One of the Ukrainian soldiers still in Azovstal, Sergei Volina, posted on Facebook late Saturday local time: “I seem to be on some hellish reality show where we soldiers are fighting for our lives, using every chance to save the whole the world is just watching an interesting story! ”he said.
“This is real life! Pain, suffering, hunger, sorrow, tears, fear, death – all real!” he wrote.
Volina said that she hoped for a miracle from the “higher powers” and that “this hellish reality show will end”.
“Time passes, and time is our life!” he concluded.
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