Kyiv:

Ukraine reported Saturday that all women, children, and elderly citizens had been evacuated from the Azovstal steel complex in Mariupol, where Ukrainian forces are fighting Russian troops.

“The President’s order has been carried out: all women, children and the elderly have been evacuated from Azovstal. This part of the Mariupol humanitarian mission has been completed,” Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said in a statement on social media.

The Azovstal steel plant is the final stronghold of Ukrainian resistance in the damaged port city, and its fate has taken on symbolic significance in the larger war since Russia’s invasion.

According to Vereshchuk, 50 individuals were evacuated from the massive steelworks on Friday. According to the Russian defense ministry, 11 of them were youngsters who were removed as part of an operation coordinated with the UN and Red Cross.

According to the most recent estimates, some 200 civilians remained trapped in the Soviet-era tunnels and bunkers beneath the massive Azovstal facility, along with a number of Ukrainian soldiers making their final stand.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday that “diplomatic options” for rescuing Ukrainian soldiers from the Mariupol steelworks were being considered, as civilian evacuations proceeded.

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