A third United Nations operation was under way on Friday morning to evacuate Ukrainian civilians from the Russian-besieged Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, which the UN secretary general has described as a series of “hellscapes”.
An estimated 200 civilians, along with Ukrainian resistance fighters, remained trapped in underground refuges at the huge industrial complex. The UN humanitarian chief, Martin Griffiths, said a convoy was headed to Azovstal “to receive those civilians remaining in that bleak hell ... and take them back to safety”.
