23 Mar 2022 11:54

Over 7,000 people left Mariupol via humanitarian corridors on March 22 - deputy head of Zelensky's office

KYIV. March 23 (Interfax-Ukraine) - More than 7,000 people left Mariupol along humanitarian corridors on March 22, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the Office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said.

"As a matter of fact, more than 7,000 people were evacuated from Mariupol via humanitarian corridors during the day. They are 1,100 Mariupol residents, who were already in Berdyansk, and nearly 6,000 people who headed from Mariupol to Zaporizhzhya on their own vehicles," Tymoshenko said in televised remarks on Tuesday.

As many as 32,000 Ukrainians have left Mariupol as of March 22. Around 211,000 people have already been evacuated via humanitarian corridors across Ukraine, he said.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories Iryna Vereschuk said that nine humanitarian corridors have been approved for Wednesday.

"Nine humanitarian corridors have been approved in the Donetsk region from Mariupol to Zaporizhzhya... Berdyansk-Zaporizhzhya. Twenty-four buses are currently at the entry to Berdyansk. At 10:00 a.m. local time (11:00 a.m. Moscow time), they will enter the city to start evacuation," Vereshchuk said at a press briefing on Wednesday.

There are also plans to open humanitarian corridors in the Zaporizhzhya region: from Polohy to Zaporizhzhya and from Hulyaypole to Zaporizhzhya, she said.

In the Kyiv region, there will be humanitarian corridors from Velyka Dymerka to Brovary, from Bohdanivka to Brovary, from Borodyanka to Bila Tserkva, and from Svetilnya to Brovary.

Humanitarian corridors from Rubezhne to Bakhmut and from Nyzhne to Bakhmut will be opened in the Luhansk region.

"These routes will also transit other cities where buses will stop to collect people - in Lysychansk, Sievierodonetsk...," Vereshchuk said.

Vereshchuk said earlier that Mariupol residents who earlier arrived in Berdyansk were expected to be evacuated from Berdyansk on Wednesday.

"On Wednesday morning, buses will start picking up people from the gathering point near the city sports center," she said in a video address on Tuesday evening.

Buses and a vehicle with petrol for Mariupol residents' cars were also expected to arrive from Zaporizhzhya. A total of 1,100 Mariupol residents, 5,926 of them on their own vehicles, left Berdyansk for Zaporizhzhya on Tuesday. Humanitarian aid was also delivered to Berdyansk, Vereshchuk said.