Some 2,000 civilian cars have been able to drive out of the besieged southeastern Ukrainian city of Mariupol along a humanitarian evacuation route, the city authorities said Tuesday.
“As of 14:00 (1200 GMT) it is known that 2,000 cars left Mariupol,” the city council said on Telegram, adding that a further 2,000 vehicles were waiting to leave the city.
The statement did not specify how many people left in the vehicles. Another 160 cars had left the city on Monday, the council has said.
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The successful evacuations come after several failed attempts since Russian forces surrounded the port city on the Azov Sea early this month.
Heavy bombardment has left some 400,000 inhabitants with no running water or heating and food running short.
More than 2,100 residents have been killed since the Russian invasion, according to the city authorities.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said Tuesday the situation in Mariupol “remains dire” and that it was not able to deliver aid to the city.
“The bottom line is that hundreds of thousands of people are still suffering,” the ICRC said.
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