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Buses leave the encircled Azowstal steelworks in Mariupol on Tuesday night.
According to the Ukrainian general staff, after weeks of waiting, 264 Ukrainian soldiers, some of whom were seriously injured, have now been evacuated.
More soldiers are holding out in the catacombs of the industrial complex, how many is unclear.
They too should be saved.
The Ukrainian military said they had fulfilled their combat mission and now received orders to save lives.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of Ukraine
»
We hope that we can save the lives of our people, some of them are seriously injured.
You will be taken care of.
Ukraine needs Ukrainian heroes alive.
That is our principle.«
The soldiers were transported to areas controlled by Russia or pro-Russian separatists - 53 wounded were taken to a hospital in the town of Novoazovsk, some 32 kilometers east of Mariupol.
Another 211 people were taken to Olenivka in the Donetsk region.
The plan is for the evacuees to be released through a prisoner exchange.
The government in Moscow had refused to rescue soldiers from the steel mill for weeks because Ukraine had insisted on transferring the injured to Ukrainian territory or a third country.
The steelworks is the last Ukrainian bastion in the strategically important city of Mariupol.
According to their own statements, the Ukrainian troops there suffered injuries in bunkers and tunnels for 82 days and endured under the most adverse conditions,
