Almost 150 people, 20 of them children, were taken out of the "Azovstal" plant in Mariupol. They are going to Zaporizhzhia. At the same time, the Russians did not allow the UN and the Red Cross to the evacuation point in Mariupol.
This was announced by Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk at a briefing in Zaporizhzhia.
"After all, Russia did not want us, the international community, the UN, the Red Cross to see that it would not let civilians out of the city — Russia wants them to remain a living shield for its troops, for the killers who are going to kill our soldiers on "Azovstal" and our civilian population," she said.
According to her, several hundred people still remain at "Azovstal".
Iryna Vereshchuk also said that the Russians today disrupted the evacuation from Tokmak and Vasylivka in the Zaporizhzhia oblast.
"Russia has violated its commitments. The agreements were such that we in Tokmak on the Lunacharsky ring, as well as in Vasylivka, will take people who will go to the evacuation points and be able to escape, but Russia has changed its agreements. But I understand that we have to work. It doesnʼt matter what Russia thought or did. The main thing is that we, as the Ukrainian government, have a plan, and we have it. We will demand from the international community and, of course, from Russia, to implement the Geneva Conventions and allow the civilian population to escape," said the Deputy Prime Minister.
Vereshchuk noted that the first stage of the humanitarian operation was successful.
"Tomorrow we have a plan on how to continue the operation," she said.
- Today, the deputy commander of the "Azov" Regiment, Svyatoslav Palamar [Kalyna], said that Russia had stormed the "Azovstal" plant.