KIEV: The evacuation of civilians stranded in the besieged city of Mariupol, which began the day before, will resume on Monday, according to reports from Andriy Yermak, the head of the President's Office.
Yermak stated on social media that 100 women, children, and elderly were evacuated from Mariupol in the first stage on Sunday, and that they were due to arrive in the southern city of Zaporizhzhya. He commended the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross for their assistance with the evacuation efforts, the report said.
The evacuation began at 4 p.m. on Sunday, according to Petro Andryushchenko, a Mariupol mayor's advisor.
On April 28, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to discuss the evacuation of Mariupol. On Sunday night, Zelensky said that an evacuation from the Azovstal complex, the last position of Ukrainian troops in Mariupol, was starting. "The first group of about a hundred people is already on their way to the controlled region," he added, adding that they will arrive in Zaporizhzhya on Monday.
On April 30, at least 20 people were evacuated, making them the first people to leave the factory since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the massive industrial complex shut down a week ago. Mariupol, a strategic port city on the Azov Sea in eastern Ukraine, has seen one of the worst outbreaks of violence in the continuing conflict.
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