Photo: SERGEI VENYAVSKY / AFP / Getty Images
Uncertainty hangs over the civilian evacuation operations in Mariupol, a city practically taken over by Russia, whose troops attacked a arsenal with weapons sent from abroad.
Only three of the fourteen buses that left with residents of the city of Mariupol, in southern Ukraine, have reached territory controlled by the Ukrainian Army, the city’s mayor, Vadym Boichenko, reported on Tuesday in statements to local television.
According to the municipal official, recognized by the Ukrainian government that it no longer controls most of that coastal city from the pro-Russian region of Donetsk, the fate of the people in the other eleven buses that left Mariupol is unknown.
⚡The Russian occupiers began storming the Azovstal plant in #Mariupol. “We were bombed all night, two civilian women were killed, and now Azovstal is being stormed” – deputy commander for Azov regiment, Svyatoslav Palamar told @ukrpravda_news #StopRussiaNow
—UkraineWorld (@ukraine_world ) May 3, 2022
“When we announced and the Russian side agreed to the evacuation (of Mariupol) and we agreed that we would give 80 buses, determined three locations, but only 14 buses arrived at two locations, and only three of them have managed to arrive to Ukraine”, the mayor specified in statements reproduced by the Interfax-Ukraine agency.
Boichenko denounced that, in his opinion, “eleven buses disappeared somewhere. They were supposed to move towards Zaporizhia, in the area controlled by our state, but they got lost somewhere.”
Boichenko believes that there are still some 100. citizens in Mariupol, including at least 186 who remain refugees in the Azovstal steel plant.
The evacuation operations are carried out in coordination with the United Nations and the International Red Cross and have been agreed new humanitarian corridors with the Russian side for this Tuesday.
The WHO prepares to receive the wounded from Mariúpol
Responsibles and volunteers of the World Health Organization (WHO) are at the reception center for displaced persons in Zaporizhia to care for civilians who are expected to arrive today from Mariupol with injuries and problems. psychological issues, sources from the organization highlighted.
“We are prepared to care for people with burns, fractures, war wounds, infections, respiratory conditions… we hope that pregnant women and people with symptoms of malnutrition will also arrive, ”said Dr. Dorit Nizan, WHO coordinator, by videoconference from Zaporiya.
Trauma experts have also been trained, said Nizan, who pointed out that for now the number of people who will arrive on the buses destined for this evacuation operation from Mariupol, a city that has suffered two months of siege and attacks, cannot be accurately predicted. by Russian forces.
The WHO, on the other hand, recalled that it has documented 186 attacks on health facilities in Ukraine, in which at least 73 person ones and 14 were injured.
Poland and the reception of Ukrainians
The Polish Prime Minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, puts the number of Ukrainian refugees settled in the country at about 2.5 million since the start of the Russian invasion, February past, and denied that they have better access to public services than the Poles themselves.
In total, between the citizens of Ukrainian origin who already resided in the country before the invasion -close to a million- and those who arrived from the 14 of February that are still in the country add up to some 3.5 million people, says the prime minister, in statements to the weekly “ Gazeta Polska”.
According to data from the Polish Border Guard, from the last 24 February 3 have entered Poland,11 million people from Ukraine.
The number of those who remain in the country is approximate, since they have freedom of movement within the bloc community. In Germany alone, it is estimated at almost 400.000 the number of Ukrainian refugees arriving in these weeks, whether from Poland or from other countries bordering Ukraine.
Russia attacks an arsenal in Odessa
The Russian military command reported that it attacked with high-precision missiles a logistics center located on a military airfield in the Odessa region, in southern Ukraine, where the Ukrainian Army received weapons from the United States and European countries.
“Hangars were destroyed with Bayraktar TB2 drones and with rockets and ammunition from the US and European countries”, said the spokesman for the Russian Ministry of Defense, General Igor Konashénkov.
Launch of Onyx high-precision missiles of the Bastion coastal missile system at the logistics center at the military airfield in Odessa, through which foreign weapons were delivered. pic.twitter.com/LdK0FagcGB— ТРУХА⚡️English (@TpyxaNews) May 3, 2022
He added that the Russian forces also destroyed an anti-aircraft missile launcher S-300 near the town of Kulbakino, on the outskirts of the city of Mykolaiv, in southern Ukraine.
According to the military spokesman, Russian aircraft bombed and destroyed six other military targets: a fortified command post, an arsenal and four concentrations of Ukrainian troops.
Also read:
- Only three of the 14 Buses evacuated from Mariupol reached safe territory
- UN and OSCE: attacks on journalists in Ukraine are war crimes
- Ukraine claims that it has destroyed two Russian ships in the Black Sea, while Russia shoots down a Ukrainian fighter
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