The Red Cross says they were not allowed to bring humanitarian aid into Mariupol, according to Reuters. Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister says that 100,000 need emergency evacuation from the city, writes Ukrinform.
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There is great tension over whether civilians will be able to get out of the bombed-out port city of Mariupol in southeastern Ukraine on Friday.
According to AFP, the Red Cross says that it is not yet clear whether the evacuation will take place today. According to Reuters, the Red Cross says that the evacuation operation consists of 54 buses – and that top-level authorities from both Russia and Ukraine have approved the evacuation plan.
Reuters also quotes the Red Cross as saying that they were not allowed to bring humanitarian aid into the city. CNN quotes an adviser to the Mariupol mayor as indicating that no emergency aid has reached them so far.
– The city remains closed to entry and it is very dangerous to leave the city in a private car. Since yesterday, the occupiers have categorically not allowed emergency aid, even in the smallest quantities, into the city, writes adviser Petro Andriushchenko on Telegram, according to CNN.
1 of 3Photo: ALEXANDER ERMOCHENKO / Reuters
Planning an evacuation convoy
Earlier, the BBC reported that the Red Cross said they were planning the largest relief and evacuation convoy to the city on Friday.
A Red Cross convoy with three cars left Zaporizhia in the direction of Mariupol on Friday morning, in an attempt to facilitate the evacuation of the city.
The city of Zaporizhia is located in the south-east of Ukraine on the river Dnipro about 70 kilometers from the city of Dnipro.
They believe the role of the convoy will be to facilitate and follow the evacuation of civilians from cities – which will take place with buses sent by Ukrainian authorities.
Evacuation from Mariupol has repeatedly failed due to new fighting.
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Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk says around 75,000 people have been evacuated from Mariupol, and that 100,000, including children, women, the elderly and the disabled, need urgent evacuation from the city, according to the Ukrinform news agency.
Ukraine accuses Russian forces of blocking 45 buses evacuating civilians from the port city of Mariupol. Vereshchuk also claims that the Russians have confiscated twelve Ukrainian trucks that were to deliver emergency aid in Melitopol. These contained 14 tons of food and medicine, according to her, writes CNN.
Late Tuesday night, the UN told Reuters that several thousand civilians had died in the bombed-out city of Mariupol, after Russia invaded the country almost six weeks ago.
The port city has since the start of the war been described as one of the hardest hit by the Russian attacks. The strong stories have come in a row:
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