Ukraine hopes to evacuate more civilians from besieged Mariupol steelworks

Ukrainian authorities are planning to evacuate more civilians from Mariupol on Monday, after dozens were finally brought to safety following weeks trapped under heavy fire in the strategic port city’s Azovstal steel complex.

The civilians had been sheltering in bunkers beneath the steelworks that is the last redoubt for Ukrainian forces in Mariupol.

On Sunday, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said about 100 civilians evacuated from the steel works and would arrive in the Ukrainian-controlled city of Zaporizhzhia on Monday morning.

“For the first time, we had two days of a ceasefire on this territory, and we managed to take out more than 100 civilians - women, children,” Zelenskiy said in a nightly video address. He said he hoped evacuations would resume on Monday at 8am local time (0500 GMT). The head of the Donetsk Regional Military Administration later said the evacuation would begin at 7am (0400 GMT).