According to Ukrainian sources, planned evacuations of civilians from the besieged port city of Mariupol largely failed on the 19th day of the war. A convoy of private cars could have left Mariupol on Monday in the direction of the city of Berdyansk, more than 70 kilometers to the west, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Wereschuk said in the evening, according to the Unian agency. “But our humanitarian cargo still hasn’t arrived in Mariupol, it’s still in Berdyansk.” The situation in Mariupol is catastrophic, Wereshchuk emphasized: “People are fighting for food and water, it’s a nightmare happening there.”
Vereshchuk expressly contradicted statements by the Russian Ministry of Defense that a mass evacuation of civilians had been initiated. Russian Major General Mikhail Mizintsev also said a first aid convoy had successfully delivered 450 tons of medicine, food and baby food.
According to Ukrainian information, the first civilians managed to escape from the city on the Azov Sea on their own during the course of the day: More than 160 private cars could have left Mariupol in the direction of Berdyansk, it was said in the early afternoon. The convoy with aid supplies, however, did not get through – neither did buses that should have driven larger numbers of civilians out of the city.
In the past few days, the convoy had had to turn back several times in the direction of Berdyansk due to ongoing fighting. Even evacuation attempts failed again and again, despite agreed fire breaks and escape corridors. Russia and Ukraine blamed each other for this. The people of Mariupol have been stuck without electricity, heating and water for days. According to observers, medicines and food are becoming scarce.
According to Ukrainian information, ten escape corridors from particularly hard-fought towns and villages were planned nationwide for Monday. However, planned evacuations in the Kyiv, Sumy and Kharkiv regions did not materialize either, said Wereshchuk./haw/DP/jha