蜜芽传媒

Ukraine's besieged city of Mariupol has been coming under intense bombardment from Russian forces for weeks.
The city has been reduced to rubble and fleeing residents have spoken of a lack of food and water, and of dead bodies being left in the streets.

Over the weekend the United Nations and the Red Cross began to evacuate Ukrainian civilians sheltering at the Azovstal steel plant. About a hundred of them are expected to arrive today in the Ukrainian-controlled city of Zaporizhzhia.

Toma Istomina is chief deputy editor of The Kyiv Independent and explains what we know about the evacuation so far and whether more people are likely to be rescued over the coming days.

"The stories of people who managed to escape Mariupol... they're absolutely horrific the conditions that they were forced to live in, their children having to see dead bodies on the streets."

(Image: Azovstal metal works in Mariupol. Credit: Reuters)