Ukraine aims to evacuate civilians from Mariupol as Russia presses campaign

The war enters its third month on Sunday with civilians continuing to pay a heavy price amid the ongoing fighting.

Ukraine said it would make a fresh attempt on Saturday to evacuate civilians from Mariupol, the devastated port city largely controlled by Russian forces, as hopes for a weekend truce during Orthodox Easter faded. 

The war enters its third month on Sunday with civilians continuing to pay a heavy price amid the ongoing fighting. 

“Today we will again try to evacuate women, children and the elderly,” Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said on Telegram.

“If everything happens as planned, we will start the evacuation around noon.” 

The call came a day after a senior Russian military officer said “the second phase of the special operation” — as Moscow terms its invasion of Ukraine — had begun, with the aim of controlling a huge, strategic part of Ukrainian territory. 

“One of the tasks of the Russian army is to establish full control over the Donbas and southern Ukraine,” Major General Rustam Minnekaev said on Friday.

Russian forces, which withdrew from around Kyiv and the north of Ukraine after being frustrated in their attempts to take over the capital, already occupy much of the eastern Donbas region and the south.