FILE PHOTO: Local resident Pavel, 42, stands next to the grave of his friend Igor, who was killed by shelling during a shared car ride during the conflict between Ukraine and Russia in a residential area in the besieged southern port city of Mariupol , Ukraine March 30, 2022. REUTERS /Alexander Ermochenko/File Photo
March 31, 2022
LVIV, Ukraine (Reuters) – A convoy of Ukrainian buses headed for the southern port city of Mariupol on Thursday to try to deliver humanitarian supplies and bring out trapped civilians, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said.
She said 45 buses were on their way to Mariupol after the International Committee of the Red Cross confirmed Russia had agreed to open a safe corridor.
The city’s mayor said this week that up to 170,000 residents in Mariupol are trapped without power and dwindling supplies.
“There are 45 buses on the way to Mariupol,” Vereshchuk said in a statement.
The city, which normally has a population of more than 400,000, was a strategic focus of the Russian invasion of Ukraine that began five weeks ago and has been bombed almost non-stop.
Repeated attempts to organize safe corridors have failed, with each side blaming the other. Russia denies targeting civilians in its attack on Ukraine.
(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk, Timothy Heritage Editor)
https://www.oann.com/convoy-of-buses-on-its-way-to-besieged-mariupol-ukraine-says/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=convoy-of-buses-on-its-way-to-besieged-mariupol-ukraine-says Convoy of buses heading to besieged Mariupol, Ukraine says
