Ukraine Sends Bus Convoy To Evacuate City Of Mariupol

Kyiv and Moscow agree on opening of humanitarian corridor

- Bel Trew

Ukraine has sent dozens of buses to the devastated city of Mariupol in order to deliver aid and evacuate thousands of trapped residents, after Kyiv and Russia finally agreed on the opening of a humanitarian corridor. Around 170,000 people are thought to still be stranded in the strategic Black Sea port city, which has been under constant bombardment and siege by Russian forces for more than a month.

The city has been described as “worse than hell” by some of those who escaped in their own cars under shelling and were interviewed by The Independent in the city of Zaporizhzhia.

Several previous efforts to establish a ceasefire in Mariupol in order to evacuate civilians have collapsed, but Russia's defence ministry said yesterday that it was prepared to observe a ceasefire in the city, and Ukraine said 45 buses had been deployed from Zaporizhzhia.

“We received a message from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC] that the Russian Federation confirms its readiness to open access for the humanitarian convoy to the city of Mariupol," Ukraine's deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk said yesterday morning. She added: “We will do everything possible to ensure that buses arrive in Mariupol today and pick up people who have not yet been able to get out of the city.”

Maksym Dotsenko, the head of the Ukrainian Red Cross, which is manning logistics on the ground for the evacuation convoy, told The Independent later in the day that the buses had left Zaporizhzhia – a city around 200km west of Mariupol – and were en route. But last night there were still reported to be major logistical problems to resolve, including the obtaining of guarantees of safety, before the evacuation could go ahead.