Around 20,000 people managed to leave Ukraine's besieged port city of Mariupol on Tuesday by driving along a humanitarian corridor agreed with Russian forces, a Ukrainian presidential aide said.
Drivers can only make slow progress due to damaged roads, mines and checkpoints.
The successful evacuations come after several failed attempts since Russian forces surrounded the port city on the Azov Sea early this month.
More than 2,100 residents have been killed in Mariupol since the Russian invasion, according to city authorities, while some 400,000 inhabitants have been left with no running water or heating and food running short
In the capital Kyiv, the mayor said the city is at a "difficult and dangerous moment", as a curfew is imposed on the capital.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko ordered a 35-hour curfew across the city, which on Tuesday morning was subject to some of the most ferocious shelling in the war.
It comes as authorities said more than 3 million people have been displaced since Russia launched its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine on 24 February.
Ukraine's capital suffered from a series of devastating Russian strikes early Tuesday morning, killing at least four people.
Apartment blocks, a metro station, and other civilian infrastructure were destroyed or damaged in Russian attacks that have devastated urban areas in the east of Ukraine.
At least two people were killed in the shelling in Kyiv as rescue workers attempted to put out a blaze at an apartment block in the capital.
The New Arab is providing live updates of the latest on the ground and additional analysis on the conflict's significance.
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