The ONU announced that an operation was being carried out to evacuate civilians from the Ukrainian city of Mariupol -under the control of the Russian Army-, with the collaboration of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and in coordination with Ukrainian and Russian authorities.
ICRC confirmed the start of the evacuation of the last Ukrainian forces and civilians from the Azovstal steelworks, adding that “the convoy to evacuate civilians started operating on April 29, traveled about 230 kilometers and arrived in Mariupol on Saturday morning. “.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zenelsky numbered 100 the first civilians evacuated from Mariupol. Some 1,000 civilians are believed to be sheltering in the vast network of tunnels that runs under the Azovstal compound, along with some 2,000 Ukrainian fighters.
The Russian Ministry of Defense announced that “80 civilians, including women and minors, were rescued” from the Azovstal steelworks and transferred to Russian-controlled eastern territories, while “those who wanted to leave for areas controlled by the kyiv regime were handed over to representatives of the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross”.
Zelensky met in kyiv with the president of the House of Representatives of the United States, Nancy Pelosi, second in the line of American presidential succession after the vice president, and the highest-ranking official of her country to visit the Ukrainian capital. Both announced the progressive return of the US diplomatic presence in Ukraine and additional direct and indirect aid of more than 700 million dollars from the government of President Joe Biden.
The Ukrainian Juvenile Prosecutor’s Office reported that 219 children have been killed and 404 injured in Ukraine in attacks by Russian forces since the beginning of their invasion of the country on February 24. In addition, it specified that 1,570 educational institutions registered material damage and that, of them, 111 were completely destroyed.
Pope Francis reiterated the need for “safe humanitarian corridors” to evacuate civilians trapped alongside Ukrainian fighters at the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol, and called for stopping the “continuous verbal and military escalation” in the conflict, during the Regina Caeli prayer at the Vatican in front of thousands of faithful who followed him from Plaza San Pedro.
