Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk posted on social media Saturday that all civilians in the besieged Azovstal Steel factory in Mariupol have been evacuated, completing a major humanitarian rescue operation ordered by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“The President's order has been carried out: all women, children, and the elderly, have been evacuated from Azovstal,” her post Saturday said. “This part of the Mariupol humanitarian operation has been completed.”
The evacuation rescued more than 340 people since Wednesday who have been sheltered in the Mariupol plant alongside Ukrainian fighters for several months, the European media company NEXTA posted on its Twitter page Thursday.
The evacuees included 50 removed from the plant Friday even as Russian artillery shells continued exploding throughout the port city, Radio Free Europe reported Friday.
"Today we were able to evacuate from Azovstal 50 women, children, and elderly people," Vereshchuk posted on Telegram Friday. “The evacuation was extremely slow…tomorrow morning we will continue the evacuation operation."
Russia, who said they would allow the humanitarian evacuations through a “safe corridor” denied reports that they were firing on the transport vehicles used to get the people out of the factory, the report said.
There may still be as many as 2,000 fighters in the plant, and Russian aircraft are being used to continue an assault on the facility, Ukrainian officials told the news outlet.
"There are many wounded, but they are not surrendering," the outlet reported that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on May 5 in his nightly video address. "They are holding their positions."
According to a Washington Post story Friday, the factory is the last stand in the decimated city preventing a complete Russian takeover, something that Russian President Vladimir Putin would like to highlight as Russia celebrates its “Victory Day” on May 9, the holiday commemorating the Nazis surrender to Russian troops in 1945 signaling the end of World War II in Europe.
“The Kremlin likely intends to claim some sort of victory in Mariupol to present a success to the Russian people, though Russian forces are highly unlikely to halt offensive operations across Ukraine on this date,” the Post reported that analysts from the Institute for the Study of War said Wednesday.
“The main importance of Mariupol now lies in the fact that it has absorbed large parts of the Russian army in the south,” retired military leader Mick Ryan said in the Sydney Morning Herald April 9. “If the Russians capture the city, it would release these soldiers, their equipment, as well as the artillery, logistics and air force that supports them, to the new Russian offensive in the east.”
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