More than 3,000 people have escaped Ukraine's besieged region of Mariupol in a convoy of buses and private cars, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday as the Red Cross prepared a fresh evacuation effort for the devastated southern port.
The city has faced weeks of ferocious Russian shelling, with at least 5,000 residents killed, according to local authorities, and the estimated 160,000 who remain face shortages of food, water and electricity.
"We have managed to rescue 6,266 people, including 3,071 people from Mariupol," Zelensky said in a video address early Saturday.
Giving details of Friday's evacuation efforts along humanitarian corridors, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said 42 buses carrying Mariupol residents had departed from the city of Berdiansk, 70 kilometres (44 miles) southwest, while another 12 had left Melitopol with local residents on board.
"That's more than 2,500 people. More than 300 private cars follow the buses. All of them are now heading to the city of Zaporizhzhia," she said on Telegram, adding more evacuations of Mariupol were planned for Saturday.
Dozens of buses carrying Mariupol residents who had escaped the devastated city arrived Friday in Zaporizhzhia, about 200 kilometres to the northwest, according to an AFP reporter on the scene.
The buses carried people who had been able to flee Mariupol to Russian-occupied Berdiansk.
"We were crying when we reached this area. We were crying when we saw soldiers at the checkpoint with Ukrainian crests on their arms," said Olena, who carried her young daughter in her arms.
"My house was destroyed. I saw it in photos. Our city doesn't exist anymore."
The International Committee of the Red Cross said its team headed to Mariupol to conduct an evacuation effort was forced to turn back Friday after "arrangements and conditions made it impossible to proceed". It said it would try again Saturday.
The New Arab is providing live updates of what's been happening on the ground in Ukraine and additional analysis on the conflict's significance.