After weeks of living largely underground with dwindling food, water and medicine, more than 170 civilians from Azovstal and the Mariupol area arrived in Zaporizhzhia on Sunday in the third safe passage operation in recent days coordinated by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the parties to the conflict and the United Nations.
“We are relieved that we could help evacuate more civilians from Azovstal and the Mariupol area and bring them to a safer place,” said Pascal Hundt, the head of delegation for the ICRC in Ukraine. “The humanitarian convoy is a life-changing moment and major relief for these people who have suffered the horrors of close combat for too many weeks. They have all endured a level of horror no human should have to go through.”
The four-day operation started on 5 May and included evacuating 51 civilians from Azovstal. It followed two safe passage operations in which about 500 people were evacuated from Azovstal and the Mariupol area to Zaporizhzhia on May 3 and May 4. Since March, the ICRC has helped facilitate the safe passage of more than 10,000 civilians from Sumy and Mariupol to other locations in Ukraine.