127 people have been evacuated from the besieged Azovstal plant in Mariupol and nearby areas to a government-controlled city, in an operation carried out along with the international Red Cross.
Osnat Lubriani, the humanitarian coordinator for Ukraine, said Tuesday that those evacuated included 101 people who “could finally leave the bunkers below the Azovstal steelworks and see the daylight after two months.”
Another 58 people joined the convoy in Manhush, a town on the outskirts of Mariupol.
“Today, we brought people safely to Zaporizhzhia,” Lubriani said. “However, I worry that there may be more civilians who remain trapped.”
However Russian troops are reported as trying to break into Mariupol’s Azovstal plant after a night of intense shelling that killed two civilians, Ukrainian defenders told Ukrainska Pravda
According to Reuters,Russian forces fired rockets at an encircled steel works in Ukraine’s southern port city of Mariupol and thick smoke blackened the sky at the plant where officials said 200 civilians were trapped despite evacuations.
Meanwhile Pope Francis has said that he is willing to go and meet President Putin in Moscow, but ruled out travel to Kyiv.
The Kremlin didn’t answer the Vatican’s offer. Pope Francis said he tried to understand Russia’s motivation to launch the war, adding that NATO’s actions may have been the cause.
