About 2,000 civilians are being evacuated on buses Friday as part of a humanitarian mission to get Ukrainians out of the devastated city of Mariupol.
Russian forces allowed the evacuation corridor upon the request of international leaders as Mariupol residents suffer under bombardments and a lack of food and water.
CNN reports the buses were traveling from the coastal city of Berdyansk to the Ukrainian government-held city of Zaporizhzhia.
“The evacuation convoy left Berdyansk for Zaporizhzhia,” the Mariupol city council stated. “Many private vehicles have joined the 42 buses escorted by Red Cross and SES (State Emergency Service) vehicles. Today we expect the arrival of a record number of Mariupol residents.”
Russian forces had previously blocked buses or confiscated materials from humanitarian convoys, making it a precarious mission.
Elsewhere, Ukrainian forces continued to counterattack Russian positions outside of Kyiv, the capital, retaking the villages of Sloboda and Lukashivka that lie south of Chernihiv and along main supply routes, according to the U.K. Ministry of Defence.
However, the agency said, “both Chernihiv and Kyiv have been subjected to continued air and missile strikes despite Russian claims of reducing activity in these areas.”
Correction: An earlier version of this story misspelled the village of Lukashivka.
Discussion about this post