At least 20 evacuated from Mariupol’s Azovstal steel plant: State media

At least one round of evacuation has been completed from Mariupol’s Azovstal steel plant on Saturday, according to state media. While Kyiv has not provided any concrete information, reports suggest that at least 20 people have been taken out of the last holdout in the Russian-held city.

Azov regiment fighters, who have been at the frontline in Mariupol, said that the 20 evacuated civilians are being taken to Zaporizhzhia. The Ukrainian city is about 225 kilometers northwest of Mariupol, according to reports from AFP.

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Ukraine has not said how many fighters are also in the plant. However, Russia put the number at about 2,000. An estimated 100,000 civilians remain in the city.

A large-scale evacuation operation is currently being planned by the United Nations, media reports suggest after Secretary General Antonio Guterres met Russian President Vladimir Putin. Videos also floated on social media, showing United Nations vehicles in the area.

Saviano Abreu, a spokesperson for United Nations’ humanitarian arm, said the body was negotiating with authorities in Moscow and Kyiv, but he could not provide details of the ongoing evacuation effort “because of the complexity and fluidity of the operation.”

“There is, right now, ongoing, high-level engagements with all the governments, Russia and Ukraine, to make sure that you can save civilians and support the evacuation of civilians from the plant”, the United Nations official said in a statement to Associated Press.

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Russian state media also released similar reports of evacuation from the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, however, the numbers were higher. According to reports from AFP, Russia’s Tass news agency said 25 individuals have been evacuated.

A skeleton medical staff was treating at least 600 wounded people, said the women, who identified their husbands as members of the Azov Regiment of Ukraine’s National Guard. Some of the wounds were rotting with gangrene, they said.