Ukraine hopes to evacuate 6,000 women, children and elderly people from the besieged city of Mariupol, if a preliminary agreement with Russia holds, the city's mayor said
Mayor Vadym Boichenko, who has left Mariupol, said 90 buses were waiting to head to the devastated southern port city. He cautioned that the agreement was still only a preliminary arrangement and that about 100,000 civilians remained there.
He said tens of thousands of people had been killed in the city on the Sea of Azov which has been largely destroyed since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. The number could not be verified by Reuters. "Given the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Mariupol, this is where we will focus our efforts today," Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk wrote on Facebook, adding that people wishing to leave Mariupol should gather in the city at 2 p.m. .
Mariupol, home to more than 400,000 people before the war, is an important port for industrial and agricultural exports and the site of some of Ukraine's biggest metals plants.
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