More than 100 people, including elderly women and mothers with small children, left the rubble-strewn Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol on Sunday, May 1. According to authorities and video released by the two sides, the evacuees, including a two-month-old baby, set out in buses and ambulances for the Ukrainian-controlled city of Zaporizhzhia, which is located about 140 miles (230 kilometers) to the northwest of Mariupol.
Mariupol Deputy Mayor Sergei Orlov told the BBC that the evacuees were making slow progress out of Mariupol and would probably not arrive in Zaporizhzhia on Monday as they had hoped. Ukrainian authorities did not explain the delay in their arrival.
At least some of the Ukrainian civilians evacuated were apparently taken to a village controlled by Russia-backed separatists. According to the Russian military, some civilians chose to stay in separatist areas, while dozens decided to leave for Ukrainian-held territory.
Russian bombardment has started again
Ukraine has accused Moscow's troops in the past of taking civilians against their will to Russian-controlled areas or Russia. The Kremlin has vehemently denied this allegation. Ukraine's Azov Battalion, which is helping to defend the Azovstal mill, announced on the Telegram messaging app that Russia's bombardment of the sprawling plant by tank, ship, and air picked up again after the partial evacuation of civilians.
Mayor Orlov said that high-level negotiations were underway with Russia, Ukraine, and international organizations on evacuating more people in the area. If successful, the steel-plant evacuation in Mariupol would represent rare progress in easing the suffering of Ukrainians caught in the middle of this almost 10-week war.
The Guardian reported that previous attempts to open safe corridors out of the southern port city of Mariupol and in other places in Ukraine have broken down, with Ukrainian authorities accusing Russian troops of shelling and shooting along previously agreed-on evacuation routes.
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Many Ukrainian civilians still trapped in Azovstal steel plant
Before the evacuation this past weekend, which was overseen by the Red Cross and the United Nations, about 2,000 Ukrainian defenders were believed to be in the mill and an estimated 1,000 civilians. Russia has demanded the surrender of the Ukrainian fighters in the plant, but they have refused.
As many as 100,000 Ukrainians overall may still be in the ravaged city of Mariupol, which had a population of more than 400,000 people before the war. Vladimir Putin's army has pounded much of the port city into rubble, trapping helpless civilians with little water, food, heat, or medicine.
Mariupol resident Yaroslav Dmytryshyn was among those fortunate to escape the hellish situation in Mariupol. In a vehicle with a back seat full of youngsters, he made his way to a reception center in Zaporizhzhia. Two signs were taped to the car's rear window, with the message "Children" and "Little ones."
Dmytryshyn told the Associated Press that there is no Mariupol anymore, and it will take millions of tons of gold for someone to rebuild it. They lived just across the railroad tracks from the ruined steel plant. Dmytryshyn added that the factory is gone completely.
