Humanitarian convoy makes progress as it approaches besieged Ukrainian city

The Ukrainian government said this Sunday (13) that a convoy of humanitarian help to the besieged port of Mariupol, which left the city of Zaporizhzhia on Saturday (12), made progress.

Iryna Vereshchuk, Minister for Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories, said that “they are in Berdyansk now, moving towards Mariupol. I sincerely hope to report a positive result in the evening.”

Berdyansk is about 80 kilometers west of the besieged city of Mariupol, where at least 1,300 civilians have been killed since the invasion began. russian Ukraine, an aide to the city’s mayor said on Wednesday. THE CNN cannot independently verify these victim numbers.

Vereshchuk said Ukraine will try to open a series of other evacuation corridors on Sunday in areas where fighting has affected the civilian population.

This includes efforts to allow people from the heavily damaged town of Borodyanka, north of Kiev, take a route west of Zhytomyr. Previous efforts to organize the movement of civilians from Borodyanka to Kiev have failed.

An attempt will also be made to get people from the settlements northeast of the capital to safety. These include Velyka Dymerka and Svitylnia.

As fighting escalates in the east, new routes are being opened for civilians living around Slovyansk, Vereshchuk said.

Movement through evacuation corridors in Ukraine has been limited in recent days.

After Ukraine and Russia agreed on several evacuation corridors on Wednesday, heavy weapons fire appeared to have disrupted some routes.

And on Thursday, Mariupol authorities accused Russia of bombing the evacuation corridor designated to evacuate the city’s residents.

Refugees leave Ukraine because of war