As Russia's military invasion continues, Ukrainian President Zelensky revealed on the 1st that civilian evacuation has begun from a steel mill in the eastern strategic point of Mariupol.
However, the Russian army is intensifying its offensive in the eastern part, and it is unpredictable whether evacuation will proceed smoothly.
The Russian Defense Ministry announced on the 1st that it destroyed the runway of the military airfield in Odesa in southern Ukraine with a missile, and also attacked seven Ukrainian military facilities in eastern Donetsk Oblast and Kharkiv Oblast, to the south and east. We are strengthening the offensive.
Under these circumstances, Ukrainian President Zelensky revealed on the 1st that the evacuation of citizens has begun from the Azovstal ironworks in Mariupol, a key point in the east.
Hundreds of citizens are said to remain at the steelworks, but about 100 of the first group have already left and will join Ukrainian officials in Zaporizhia in the southeast on the 2nd. That is.
A spokesman for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Ukraine told NHK on the 1st, "Citizens' evacuation began on the 30th and continues to this day. Details cannot be disclosed in order to protect the situation, "said the United Nations, the International Commission for the Red Cross, and Ukrainian and Russian authorities, who are working to evacuate citizens from the ironworks. ..
Meanwhile, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced on the 1st that "under the leadership of President Putin, 80 citizens, including women and children detained by Ukrainian nationalists, have been released from the premises of the steelworks."
Regarding the evacuation of citizens from Mariupoli, the United Nations has announced that after the UN Secretary-General António Guterres met with President Putin on the 26th of last month, the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross have agreed in principle to be involved in the evacuation. I did.
Approximately 40 citizens were evacuated from the steelworks area each day, arriving at a temporary facility in the village of Bezuimenne, eastern Donetsk Oblast, Reuters reported.
In the local video, you can see that the vehicle with "UN" and multiple buses are stopped, and that the citizens who got off the bus walk to the facility.
President Zelensky says that he will work with the United Nations to evacuate other citizens from the steelworks, but the Russian army is intensifying the offensive in the eastern part and so on, and it is uncertain whether the evacuation will proceed smoothly. There is no situation.