50 civilians were evacuated from Azovstal - Vereshchuk

KATERYNA TYSHCHENKO —  FRIDAY, 6 MAY 2022, 21:32

Fifty women, children and elderly people were evacuated from Azovstal in Mariupol on Friday.

Source: Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk on Facebook

Quote: "Today we evacuated civilians from Azovstal. On the way back we were supposed to collect people at Port City. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to do this because the convoy had been forced to stand near Azovstal all day. Fights and other provocations were taking place there. The enemy constantly violated the ceasefire. Therefore, the evacuation was extremely slow.

However, today we managed to evacuate 50 women, children and elderly people from Azovstal. Tomorrow morning we will continue the evacuation operation."

Details: Vereshchuk said that according to the plan, there should be buses at Port City at 17:00 that will take people to Bezimenne. There, the people from Port City will join the convoy from Azovstal, which will leave for Zaporizhzhia the next day.

Previously: Earlier on Friday, Reuters confirmed the evacuation of 25 people, including children, from the Azovstal plant in Mariupol to the village of Bezimenne, which is controlled by the Russian occupiers.

Background: 

• On the afternoon of 6 May, the Russian occupiers violated the ceasefire on the territory of the plant and fired on a car which Ukrainian soldiers were using to transport civilians. One soldier was killed and six others were wounded.
• On 6 May, UN Secretary General António Guterres and the Head of the Office of the President Andrii Yermak reported that during the third stage of the evacuation it had been possible to rescue at least 500 civilians from the bunkers of Azovstal, although before that about 200 civilians were known to have been evacuated.