A Ukrainian official said Thursday that a convoy of buses en route to the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol was held up at a Russian checkpoint in Vasylivka, a town between the Ukrainian-controlled city of Zaporizhzhia and the city. of Berdiansk, controlled by Russia.
“Our task is to open a humanitarian corridor and help people survive, especially civilians – women, children, the elderly,” according to Iryna Vereshchuk, Ukrainian minister for reintegration of temporarily occupied territories.
“At 12:30 (local time), 45 buses left Zaporizhzhia for Berdiansk. Right now, they are at the Vasylivka checkpoint, and the Russian Federation is again not letting our buses through. Again, we urge the entire world community to focus their attention and help people get out of busy Mariupol,” said Vereshchuk.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said on Thursday that it was preparing to facilitate the safe passage of civilians from Mariupol on Friday. Vereshchuk said about 100,000 people in need of immediate evacuation remained in the city, out of a pre-war population of more than 400,000.
“That is, another 100,000 women, children, the elderly and people with disabilities who need our help and the world,” she said.
Vereshchuk claimed that 45,000 Ukrainian citizens were forcibly deported to Russia, a figure that CNN could not immediately check. The Russian military says thousands have been “evacuated” to Russia from separatist-controlled regions and “dangerous areas” of Ukraine.
Earlier today, the deputy mayor of Mariupol, Sergei Orlov, told John Berman of CNNthat the buses were passing through the evacuation corridor.
Orlov said that about 1,500 to 2,000 people will be able to leave the city between Thursday and Friday (1).
He added that there are “constant street battles” in the city, but the Ukrainian army still controls the city centre.
People who remain in Mariupol are “living like rats, living underground in shelters, under bomb shelters. So people do their best to be alive in this situation,” he said.
Source: CNN Brasil
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