Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said a humanitarian corridor for the evacuation of civilians stranded in the besieged city of Mariupol could work on Saturday.

In a Facebook post late Friday evening, Vereshchuk said, “Call on our civilians waiting for evacuation from Mariupol.

It is possible that tomorrow we can open a humanitarian corridor from Mariupol.”

The minister said evacuation buses will pick up civilians at the roundabout in front of the Port-City shopping center at 10 a.m. Saturday.

She urged Mariupol residents to follow official reports on Saturday morning.

“If all goes well, I will give you a confirmation. I am writing to you now so that you are a little prepared if tomorrow morning we manage to agree on the hallway,” Vereshchuk added.

She recalled that the humanitarian corridors from Mariupol have been disrupted many times, but reiterated that “we must try as many times as necessary, until we succeed”.

On Thursday, evacuation buses carrying 79 Mariupol residents who had left the besieged city the day before arrived in territory controlled by the Ukrainian government.

Mariupol has been under siege since March 1, reports Ukrayinska Pravda.

On April 12, some of the Ukrainian Marines were able to move from the Ilyich factory to the Azov regiment at the Azovstal factory, and some were taken prisoner.

The Russian army continues to drop bombs on the Azovstal factory.

On April 19, Sviatoslav Palamar (Kalyna), deputy commander of the Azov regiment, said that the Azovstal plant was almost completely destroyed and Ukrainian soldiers were trying to save people from under the rubble.

The Russian Defense Ministry has repeatedly called on Ukrainian defenders stationed in Azovstal to lay down their arms and surrender.

Russia wants to control Mariupol because of its strategic position which would ensure unhindered land access from Donbass to Crimea.

–IANS

ksk/

(Only the title and image of this report may have been edited by Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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