Red Cross convoy arrives in Zaporizhzhia with refugees from southeastern Ukraine – International

A convoy of seven buses and about 40 private vehicles under the protection of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) arrived this Wednesday (6) from southeastern Ukraine to Zaporizhzhia (south), an AFP journalist noted.

“Our team took a convoy of buses and private vehicles with around 500 people to Zaporozhzhia,” the ICRC said on Twitter, noting that they had tried to reach the besieged city of Mariupol, but that “security conditions made it impossible”.

“Those who were part of the convoy managed to escape from Mariupol”, explains the Red Cross, which had one of its teams in charge of helping to evacuate civilians “detained” on Monday by the police, in a city under Russian control and was later forced to come back.

Mariupol, a port city that was the largest in eastern Ukraine to escape the control of pro-Russian separatists in the region until the start of the Russian invasion on February 24, is under a bloody attack.

The city is 90% destroyed and “40% of its infrastructure” is “irrecoverable”, declared Mayor Vadim Boichenko on Monday.

“A week ago, prudent estimates reported a balance of 5,000 dead,” wrote the city of Mariupol on Wednesday in the Telegram.

“But considering the size of the city, the catastrophic destruction, the duration of the blockade and the fierce resistance, there could be tens of thousands of casualties among Mariupol’s civilian population,” the message added.