All women, children and the elderly have been evacuated from the besieged Azovstal steel works in Mariupol following an international effort to allow civilians to flee the complex where they had been trapped for weeks in the southern Ukrainian city.
Smoke rises from the Azovstal steel mill in Mariupol. The file is Alexandrov.
The president's order has been carried out, and this portion of the Mariupol humanitarian operation has been completed, according to a Telegram post by Veheshchuk.
Mariupol Patrol Police chief Mykhailo Vershynin did not say how many people were able to leave.
Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered troops to block the site of the last Ukrainian stronghold in Mariupol so that no one could escape.
The U.N. and the Vatican have called for a ceasefire around the plant to allow people to flee, as Ukrainian officials have been working to evacuate hundreds of civilians from the plant for over a week.
Despite intense fighting, Ukrainian troops have remained in control of the Azovstal plant. During the invasion, Mariupol was a target for Russia because it would allow them to consolidate a land bridge from the annexed Crimean peninsula to Russian-backed areas in the Donbas region. Russia has been bombarding Mariupol since the beginning of the war. At least 300 people were killed when Russia bombed a theater in March where hundreds of people had taken refuge. The mayor of Mariupol said last month that at least 10,000 people have died in the city, which had a population of 400,000 before the war.
A senior U.S. defense official told reporters that there were only 2,000 Russian troops in Mariupol. The official said that most of the troops that had been in the city had been moved to support the Russian offensive.
The Ukrainian commander says that Russia violated the Truce at Mariupol Steel Plant.
Dozens of civilians were evacuated from the Mariupol steel plant.
Mariupol is a prized target for Russia.
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