ZAPORIZHZHIA: A Red Cross convoy will try again to evacuate civilians from the besieged port of Mariupol on Saturday (Apr 2) as Russian forces looked to be regrouping for new attacks in southeast Ukraine.
Encircled since the early days of Russia’s five-week-old invasion, Mariupol has been Moscow’s main target in Ukraine’s southeastern region of Donbas. Tens of thousands there are trapped with scant access to food and water.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) sent a team on Friday to lead a convoy of about 54 Ukrainian buses and other private vehicles out of the city, but they turned back, saying conditions made it impossible to proceed.
“They will try again on Saturday to facilitate the safe passage of civilians,” the ICRC said in a statement. A previous Red Cross evacuation attempt in early March failed.
Russia and Ukraine have agreed to humanitarian corridors during the war that have facilitated the evacuation of thousands of civilians.
The ICRC says its Mariupol operation was approved by both sides, but key logistics were still being worked out.
In an early morning video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned that Russian troops had moved toward Donbas and the heavily bombarded northeastern city of Kharkiv.
“I hope there may still be solutions for the situation in Mariupol,” Zelenskiy said. “The whole world has to react to this humanitarian catastrophe.”
In Chuhuiv, a city in Kharkiv province, two young women sat on neighbouring hospital beds, limbs bandaged and pinned in metal braces, survivors of an attack on a bus that they said was carrying around 20 civilians.
Speaking to Reuters Television, Alina Shegurets remembered her own screams, and pointed to her wounded legs and hip.
“Windows started to shake. Then I saw something that looked like holes. Then bullets started to fly above. Powder, smoke … I was screaming and my mouth was full of it,” Shegurets said.
The other woman, who identified herself only as Yulia, said eight people died in the attack.
