Civilians evacuated from plant have arrived safely in Zaporizhzhia: UN
Civilians, including women, children and the elderly, trapped for weeks inside the Azovstal Iron and Steel Works plant in Mariupol have arrived safely in Zaporizhzhia, according to the United Nations.
A woman evacuated from the plant told ABC News in Russian, "They bombed us every day ... at night, in the morning."
"It was horrible. It is just the complete elimination of all people," she said.
"I'm relieved to confirm that the safe passage operation from Mariupol has been successful," tweeted Osnat Lubrani, the U.N.'s resident coordinator and humanitarian coordinator in Ukraine. "The people I travelled with told me heartbreaking stories of the hell they went through. I'm thinking about the people who remain trapped. We will do all we can to assist them."
Lubrani said 101 civilians were brought out of the plant and another 58 civilians from the Mariupol area joined the evacuation. The youngest was 6 months old, she said.
"It was moving and horrifying to sort of witness people that have been locked in darkness, living under incessant shelling, coming and seeing the sky for the first time in two months," Lubrani said at a Tuesday briefing.
Lubrani said some were too frightened to come out. She said they were in contact with about 30 civilians who chose not to leave, because they couldn't leave without going back into the city to find out the fate of their loved ones.
For others, Lubrani said, it was physically challenging to leave.
They had also lacked proper access to water, food and sanitation, she noted.
Many more people remain trapped at the plant. The sprawling industrial site is the last holdout for the Ukrainian resistance in Mariupol, as Russian forces accelerate their efforts to fully capture city. The Mariupol City Council has previously said there are at least 1,000 people, including Ukrainian troops, on the grounds of the Azovstal plant.
-ABC News' Zoe Magee and Christine Theodorou
