173 civilians evacuated from Azovstal arrive in Zaporizhzhia
Denys Karlovskyi – Sunday, 8 May 2022, 23:01
173 civilians evacuated from the Azovstal plant have arrived in Zaporizhzhia.
Source: Mariupol City Council, on Telegram; AFP News Agency, on Twitter
Quote from the Mariupol City Council: "Another 173 civilians have been rescued from Azovstal in Mariupol.
10 buses with Mariupol citizens have entered the territory of the free Ukraine.
We are grateful to all the heroic defenders of Azovstal for this. The lives of 3 soldiers and the wounds sustained by 6 more were the price of rescuing civilians from the steelworks."
Details: The Mariupol City Council also thanked the UN, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk of Ukraine for organising the safe evacuation of civilians.
It is currently unknown whether some of the evacuated civilians are held in "filtration camps" on Russian-controlled territories – according to the commander of the Azov Regiment, Russian occupiers do not allow everyone to immediately pass through their checkpoints.
Background:
- Iryna Vereshchuk, Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine, reported on the evening of 7 May that all civilians remaining in the bunkers of the Azovstal plant were safely evacuated.
- On 1 May, the Ukrainian government, aided by the UN and the ICRC, was able to evacuate some of the civilians who were hiding from Russian forces in the bunkers of Azovstal in Mariupol. The evacuation convoy arrived to Zaporizhzhia on 3 May. In order to enable this operation, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres conducted several meetings with world leaders and has personally visited Moscow and Kyiv to arrange the operation’s details.
- On 4 May, 344 civilians were evacuated to Zaporizhzhia via the "Mariupol corridor." This was the second phase of the evacuation operation facilitated by the UN and the ICRC.
- On 6 May, the Ukrainian government successfully evacuated 50 civilians, including children, from the territory of Azovstal.
- On the evening of 7 May, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said that international organisations have joined efforts with the Ukrainian government to organise the evacuation of medics and wounded soldiers from Azovstal in the near future.
