Several buses reportedly brought Ukrainian soldiers from Azovstal Steel Works in Mariupol.
About a dozen buses carrying Ukrainian military personnel left the Azovstal Power Plant in Mariupol on Monday. This is reported by officials at the Reuters news agency from the eastern Ukrainian port city. The circumstances of the evacuation were initially unclear. On the Ukrainian side, the wounded defenders were said to have been exchanged for Russian prisoners of war. Moscow refused to evacuate fighters for weeks.
Ceasefire and Humanitarian Corridor
On Monday, Kiev declined to confirm Russian information about the establishment of a humanitarian corridor for wounded soldiers. A commander of troops stranded at the steel mill said in a video that he was carrying out orders from the high command to save soldiers’ lives. He left open what exactly it means. He did not say that groups surrounded by Russian units would surrender.
The Defense Ministry in Moscow announced on Monday that a ceasefire was in place and a humanitarian corridor would be opened. Ukrainian fighters were to receive medical treatment in the pro-Russian separatist-controlled city of Novoazovsk in eastern Ukraine. The Kiev government has always demanded that the wounded be transferred to the Ukrainian-controlled area or to a third country. According to Ukrainian sources, around 1,000 Mariupol defenders are hiding in the industrial zone of Azovstal. Hundreds of them are injured.