Evacuation from Mariupol Steel Works is in progress.US House of Representatives visits President Zelensky

Zaporizhia: A long-awaited effort to evacuate civilians from the steelworks in Mariupol, Ukraine, was underway on Sunday (May 1, 2022). Defense against Russian aggression.

Saviano Abreu, a humanitarian spokesman for the United Nations, said operations to remove civilians from the vast Azovstal ironworks are being carried out in collaboration with the International Committee of the Red Cross and Ukrainian and Russian officials.

In a video posted online by the Ukrainian Army, an elderly woman and mother with a small child wrapped in winter clothing helped climb a pile of steep debris from factory rubble and finally board a bus. I did.

The evacuation operation received praise from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. He said more than 100 civilians, mainly women and children, were expected to arrive in the Ukrainian-controlled city of Zaporizhia on Monday.

“Today, for the first time on every day of the war, this highly necessary (humanitarian) corridor has begun to function,” he said in a pre-recorded speech published on his telegram channel.

Later on Sunday, one of the factory’s defenders said Russian troops resumed bombardment of the factory as soon as the evacuation of a group of civilians was completed.

Dennis Schlega, commander of the Ukrainian National Guard’s 12th Operation Brigade, said in a television interview on Sunday night that hundreds of civilians were trapped with nearly 500 injured soldiers and “many” bodies. Said there was up to.

“Dozens of little kids are still in the bunker under the plants,” Shrega said. “I need to evacuate one or two more times.”

Mariupol’s aide said he had also received reports that the bombardment had resumed. “A cannon is like a house shaking (on the other side of the river),” Petro Andrewschenko wrote in a telegram post.

As many as 100,000 people, including up to 1,000 civilians, have been slaughtered by an estimated 2,000 Ukrainian fighters under Soviet-era steelworks, the only part of the city not occupied by Russians. It is believed to be in the blocked Mariupol.

However, the fate of Ukrainian fighters, still crouching in the factory, was not immediately clear.

As with other evacuation, the success of the mission in Mariupol relied on Russia and its troops and was deployed along a long series of checkpoints before reaching the Ukrainian checkpoint.

Zaporizhia, a city about 230km northwest of Mariupol, was the evacuation destination. Abreu said civilians who have been stuck for nearly two months will receive immediate humanitarian assistance, including psychological services.

Mariupol has seen some of the worst sufferings of war. In the first few weeks of the war, a maternity hospital was hit by a deadly airstrike in Russia, and it was reported that about 300 people were killed in the bombing of a theater where civilians had been evacuated.

The Mariupol City Council said in a post on the Telegram messaging app that the evacuation of civilians from other parts of the city will begin on Monday morning.

People who have fled the occupied Russian territories in the past have stated that their cars have been fired, and Ukrainian officials have repeatedly accused Russian troops of bombarding the evacuation routes agreed upon by both sides.

Doctors Without Borders was at the reception center for refugees in Zaporizhia in preparation for the arrival of the UN convoy.

Stress, malaise, and food shortages may have undermined the health of civilians trapped in the basement of the factory.

Meanwhile, Sviatoslav Palamar, deputy commander of the Ukrainian Regiment, called for the evacuation of injured Ukrainian fighters and civilians.

“I don’t know why they weren’t taken away and their evacuation to Ukrainian-controlled territory isn’t being discussed,” he said in a video posted Saturday on the regiment’s telegram channel.

Meanwhile, Pelosi visited Kieu on Saturday. This is the highest-ranking American parliamentarian to travel to this country since Russia’s February 24 invasion. Her visit came a few days after Russia launched a rocket in the capital during a visit by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

At a press conference on Sunday in the Polish city of Rzeszow, Pelosi said she and other members of the US Parliamentary delegation met Zelensky and brought him “a message of appreciation from the American people for his leadership.”

Zelensky said in a nightly speech on Sunday that more than 350,000 people had been evacuated from the battle zone thanks to a humanitarian corridor previously agreed with Moscow since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began.