The militia of the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) with the support of Russian armed forces have eliminated practically all combat facilities occupied by neo-Nazi rebels in the residential areas of the city of Mariupol, the Russian Defence Ministry said.
According to the ministry, the successful operation aimed to stop the city's blockade has resulted in the opening of humanitarian corridors after 15:00 local time, allowing civilians to evacuate.
200 buses were deployed to Mariupol to pick up the evacuees, and 50 of the buses have already arrived in the city. Humanitarian trucks carrying 450 tonnes of medicines and food, including baby formula, were dispatched to Mariupol, and the first vehicles have already arrived.
Earlier this month, the head of the Russian National Defence Control Centre Mikhail Mizintsev said that Mariupol and several other Ukrainian cities have been facing "a humanitarian crisis of catastrophic proportions." He stressed that in Mariupol, neo-Nazis were firing at people trying to flee the city through humanitarian corridors. According to him, hundreds of thousands of people, including foreign nationals, are being held hostage.