Europe

Home page

Europe

Red Cross heads again for Mariupol as Russia shifts Ukraine focus

02 April 2022 08:34 (UTC +04:00)

A Red Cross convoy travelling to the Ukrainian city of Mariupol will try again to evacuate civilians from the besieged port on Saturday as Russian forces looked to be regrouping for new attacks in the southeast, APA reports citing Reuters.

Mariupol, encircled since the early days of Russia's five-week-old invasion, has been Moscow's main target in Ukraine's southeastern region of Donbas. Tens of thousands there are trapped with scant access to food and water.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) sent a team on Friday to lead a convoy of about 54 Ukrainian buses and other private vehicles out of the city, but they turned back, saying conditions made it impossible to proceed.

"They will try again on Saturday to facilitate the safe passage of civilians," the ICRC said in a statement. A previous Red Cross evacuation attempt in early March failed because the route was found to be unsafe.

Russia and Ukraine have agreed to humanitarian corridors during the war that have facilitated the evacuation of thousands of civilians.

The ICRC says its Mariupol operation has been approved by both sides, but major details were still being worked, out such as the exact timing and destination of the convoy, which would be an undetermined location in Ukraine.

In an early morning video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned that Russian troops had moved toward the Donbas region and northeast in the direction of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, where previous Russian strikes badly damaged urban areas.

"I hope there may still be solutions for the situation in Mariupol," Zelenskiy said. "The whole world has to react to this humanitarian catastrophe."

In Chuhuiv, a city in Kharkiv province, casualties suffering shrapnel and gunshot flooded a hospital. Two women sat on neighbouring beds, limbs bandaged and pinned in metal braces.

"An entire bus was shot out. We were on a bus for civilians. There were about 20 people on board, 14 people survived. Eight dead bodies," a woman who identified herself only as Yulia told Reuters Television.

Sitting next to her, Alina Shegurets remembered her own screams when the bus came under attack, and pointed to her wounded legs and hip.

"Windows started to shake. Then I saw something that looked like holes. Then bullets started to fly above. Powder, smoke... I was screaming and my mouth was full of it," Shegurets said.