🎙️ Voice is AI-generated. Inconsistencies may occur.
At least 160 cars were able to escape Mariupol through humanitarian corridors on Monday after extensive shelling damaged the area the past two weeks, Ukrainian officials said.
A cease-fire allowed people to evacuate, but they must pass several Russian checkpoints along the way. At least 160 cars left within the first two hours, but it's estimated that more have left since, Reuters reported.
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk described the conditions in Mariupol, which has been under heavy Russian shelling, as "catastrophic," with more than 2,500 people killed in the area so far. The city started using an 82-foot-long trench as a mass grave after the local morgues started overflowing.
Civilians have been trapped in the city for more than two weeks with a shortage of food and water. Ukrainian authorities said there is no heat, electricity or running water most of the time and Russian forces have prevented necessary humanitarian supplies from reaching the city, according to Reuters.
However, after a week of trying, an evacuation corridor was finally arranged. People were able to leave by car toward to city of Zaporizhzhia, which is about 140 miles (225 kilometers) away, but buses were not allowed.
Petro Andriushchenko, an adviser to the mayor's office in Mariupol, said they cannot guarantee the security of the evacuation route, but it's the only one that is officially approved and worked today, CNN reported.
"The city continues to be bombed, but this road is not being shelled. We don't know when the first cars can get to Zaporizhzhia as there are still many Russian checkpoints that need to be passed," Andrei Rempel, a representative of the city council, told Reuters.
Oleg Nikolenko, a spokesperson for Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, tweeted last week that Russia had broken its cease-fire agreement after firing at the humanitarian corridor from Zaporizhzhia to Mariupol while more than 30 buses were trying to deliver humanitarian aid and evacuate citizens.
Local officials believe that Monday's evacuation was the first successful use of a humanitarian corridor after several failed attempts in the city. It's unknown how many people fled before Russian forces closed in on the city, which has a population of 400,000 people, the New York Post reported.
Update 3/14/22, 2:07 p.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.
