Russia-Ukraine war: UN plans third evacuation from Azovstal Steel Plant in Mariupol

The United Nations is planning a third evacuation operation to evacuate civilians trapped in the besieged Azovstal steel plant in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol. In a statement, the global agency informed that there are an estimated 200 civilians stranded along with the Ukrainian resistance fighters inside the steelworks facility with little or no food and water. 

On Friday, UN humanitarian chief, Martin Griffiths, reportedly informed that a convoy for the safe evacuation was sent to the Azovstal Plant “to receive those civilians remaining in that bleak hell and take them back to safety.” The remaining Ukrainian soldiers holed up in the Azovstal plant had appealed to Ukraine’s President Zelesnkyy to evacuate those wounded, as well as the soldiers’ dead bodies from inside the facilities and honour them with respectful military burials. 

2,000 Ukrainian fighters fighting from tunnels and bunkers in facility

It is speculated that about 2,000 Ukrainian fighters have taken refuge inside the tunnels and bunkers beneath the plant that is still being bombarded heavily by the Russian forces, as per the Ukraine’s military. Russia intends to capture the facility, the final hold out of the Ukraine forces by May 9 as it celebrates Victory Day that commemorates Soviet Union's defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945 Word War II that Moscow calls the Great Patriotic war. 

"Russian occupiers are focusing on blocking and trying to destroy Ukrainian units in the Azovstal area," the Ukrainian Army said in a statement. "With the support of aircraft, Russia resumed the offensive in order to take control of the plant.”

As Russia’s attacks rocked the Mariupol steel works, the United Nations on Friday morning rushed to evacuate civilians. While Russia’s President Vladimir Putin had agreed to provide safe passage for the civilians trapped inside, he had assertively asked the Ukraine fighters from Azov Battalion, whom he labels as “neo-Nazis” to lay down arms and surrender or face consequences. Ukrainian fighters, however, rejected Russia’s offer to surrender and make out alive and have instead continued fierce battles with Russian troops.

On April 21, Russia’s President Putin had declared the southern besieged city of Mariupol as “liberated,” as he announced victory of his forces despite that the intense fighting still raged on in the sprawling Azovstal holdout. Putin ordered his troops to seal off Ukrainian defenders inside the 10 sq km plant “so that a fly cannot not pass through.” 

"There is no need to climb into these catacombs and crawl underground through these industrial facilities," Putin told his Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, while praising Russian troops for the successful operation and “liberating Mariupol,” a critical and strategic city to Moscow that lies on the Sea of Azov. Russians will be able to establish land corridor connecting Ukraine’s Donbass region with Crimea, a peninsula annexed by Russian troops in 2014 via the strategic port city of Mariupol. The large metallurgical facility spreads 10 sq km with buildings, underground bunkers and tunnels and is reportedly another city within the city. Putin had asked his defense minister to give final ultimatums to the fighting forces and seal them securely in the plant that would imply those trapped beneath starving to death. 

“They physically cannot take Azovstal, they have understood this, they have taken huge losses there,” Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych told a briefing. “Our defenders continue to hold it.”