LVIV, Ukraine (Reuters) – Ukraine expects good news over the weekend regarding evacuations of people from the besieged southeastern city of Mariupol, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelesnskiy said on Saturday.
“Our delegation has reached an agreement in Istanbul (during Ukraine-Russia peace talks) to provide evacuations,” Oleksiy Arestovych told Ukraine’s television.
“I think that today or maybe tomorrow we will hear good news regarding the evacuation of the inhabitants of Mariupol.”
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) sent a team on Friday to lead a convoy of about 54 Ukrainian buses and other private vehicles out of the city, but they turned back, saying conditions made it impossible to proceed. They were due to try again on Saturday.
Encircled since the early days of Russia’s five-week-old invasion, Mariupol has been Moscow’s main target in the southeastern region of Donbas. Tens of thousands of people are trapped in the city with scant access to food and water.
(Reporting by Natalia Zinets; Writing by Lidia Kelly; Editing by Frances Kerry)
