Moscow-Sana
The Russian Ministry of Defense announced the evacuation of 80 civilians from the Azovstal plant, the last stronghold of Ukrainian forces and their Nazi extremists, in the city of Mariupol, Donetsk People's Republic.
The ministry said in a statement today: Thanks to the initiative of Russian President Vladimir Putin, 80 civilians, including women and children, were evacuated from the Azovstal factory, where they were held by the Ukrainian Nazi extremists.
The ministry indicated that the units of the army and the people's police of the Donetsk Republic surrounding the factory established a humanitarian corridor in order to secure the evacuation of civilians and are working to ensure the calm regime, adding that all the evacuated civilians were transferred to the village of Bizymenoye in Donetsk, where they were provided with the necessary shelter, food and medical aid.
The ministry confirmed that the Russian forces handed over to the representatives of the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross the evacuees who wanted to go to the territory under the control of the Kyiv government.
Mariupol, the largest city overlooking the Sea of Azov, has witnessed fierce battles since the start of the Russian military operation in Ukraine, during which Russian forces and the Donetsk People's Republic managed to control the entire city, except for the Azovstal factory.
Russia unilaterally declared a humanitarian truce and suspended its military operations in the city in order to enable civilians in the factory to leave, but Kyiv denied the existence of any agreement to open humanitarian corridors there.
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