Some 170,000 people are believed to be still trapped in the strategic Black Sea port, which has been under constant bombardment and siege by Russian forces for more than a month. The city has been described as “worse than hell” by some of those who escaped in their own cars or on foot under bombardment and interviewed the Independent in Zaporizhzhia. Several previous attempts to establish a ceasefire in Mariupol to evacuate civilians have failed, but the Russian Defense Ministry said it was ready to observe a ceasefire in the city on Thursday and Ukraine said 45 buses would be deployed from Zaporizhia. “We have received a message from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) that the Russian Federation reaffirms its readiness to open access to the humanitarian convoy in the city of Mariupol,” Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshbuk said this morning. He added: “We will do everything possible to ensure that the buses arrive in Mariupol today and pick up people who have not yet managed to leave the city.” Maksym Dotsenko, the head of the Ukrainian Red Cross who manned the evacuation escort on the ground, told the Independent later Thursday that the buses had left Zaporizhzhia – a town about 200 kilometers west of Mariupol – and were ‘οδόν. However, The Independent understands that major logistical obstacles, including security guarantees, remain before evacuation can proceed. Refugees who have just left Mariupol in their own cars and on foot take an evacuation bus to the city of Zaporizhzhia (Bell True) Lucile Marbeau, a PPC representative in Ukraine, told the Independent that they hoped to drive an escort to Mariupol on Friday morning, taking two aid trucks for those wishing to stay in the besieged city. In the trucks, which are still in Zaporizhia, he said there were several basic medicines – from painkillers to antibiotics – for 2,000 people for three months. Also in the trucks there are war wound kits to treat up to 100 people injured by explosions and explosions. “The ICRC team is currently in advance in Zaporizhzhia to be ready to facilitate the safe passage of civilians who desperately want to leave Mariupol and to bring much-needed humanitarian aid to those who have decided to stay,” he told Independent on Thursday night. . “We are ready to leave tomorrow morning and we hope to lead this escort.” In an earlier statement, DEES said that “the lives of tens of thousands of people in Mariupol depend on it.” “For reasons of logistics and security, we will be ready to run the safe passage operation tomorrow, Friday, provided all parties agree to the exact terms,” the statement said. Zaporizhzhia has become the main reception point for those leaving the coastal city. Those who managed to get out of Mariupol alive told the Independent that they had spent the last four weeks living underground, coming to the surface only to cook in the fires. When water, electricity, cell phones, and heating were cut off, they limited themselves to pushing their radiators for water, melting snow, drinking rainwater, or running through bombs to reach springs. “Children” is written in Russian on a placard inside a car a family just used to leave Mariupol under bombing. (Bell True) “More than 80 percent of the city has been completely destroyed. There must be thousands dead. “It is very dangerous even to take the bodies out from under the rubble to measure them,” said Ruslan, 39, who escaped from Mariupol the day before yesterday with his three-year-old daughter and his wife after falling on a Red volunteer. Cross he was trying. to find survivors. He said his mother, sister and father-in-law remained trapped in the city, as they were in an area known as the Left Bank, which has been hit hardest. They could not get through the second week of the war, which broke out when Vladimir Putin’s forces invaded Ukraine on February 24. “The bombing was too intense to come to the surface to cook. We cooked in the hallways of our house. I saw bodies cut in front of my eyes. “Corpses lay on the ground for days.” Mr Dotsenko of the Red Cross said the situation in the city was so dire that it was “critical” to allow these buses to pass. “Previous attempts on corridors have failed,” he said, explaining that they had been bombed by Russian forces. “If this is successful, it will be the first proper evacuation from Mariupol.” A woman injured in Mariupol arrives at a volunteer reception center in Zaporizhia (Bell True) There are reports of hungry people eating stray dogs and claiming that Russia has committed war crimes in Mariupol in connection with the bombing of a theater where thousands of civilians were sheltered. The UN also claimed that there was growing evidence of mass graves within the city – a claim confirmed by more than a dozen witnesses who spoke to the Independent after their departure from Mariupol. Russia has said it is not targeting civilians. The survivors shared videos and photos showing the catastrophic conditions in Mariupol. Drone footage also emerged Thursday revealing the true extent of the damage, showing charred houses and the city skyline covered in white smoke. On Wednesday, Ukraine claimed that Russian forces had hit a Red Cross depot in Mariupol amid heavy bombardment. Nadezhda, 57, is being treated by volunteers for injuries sustained during the Mariupol bombings. He spent a week underground before finally escaping (Bell True) At a reception center in Zaporizhzhia, Nadezhda, 57, said the elderly, the disabled and the sick were trapped in their homes, unable to even cover themselves in their basements. “My aunt died of suffocation and then burned, because we could not take her to the shelter when the bombing set our building on fire,” she said, as her leg – injured by bomb blasts – was treated by volunteers. “Mariupol is a nightmare. “It’s worse than hell,” she added in tears. Putin said his troops would continue to attack the city until Ukrainian forces surrendered to Mariupol. While the agreement on a humanitarian corridor is seen as a positive sign, previous attempts to set up such routes have repeatedly collapsed, with fighting taking place during the agreed ceasefire, making it difficult to evacuate civilians. Most of the citizens who managed to leave so far did so in private vehicles, as the two sides could not previously agree on the entry of buses into the city. Mariupol, which housed more than 430,000 people before the war, has seen attacks on maternity wards, fire stations and civilian homes.
