War in Ukraine, live: a new UN convoy expected to evacuate civilians from the Azovstal factory in Mariupol – Le Monde

A UN convoy expected in Mariupol despite an uncertain context A new UN convoy is expected Friday to evacuate the last civilians entrenched in the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol, the last pocket of Ukrainian resistance in this strategic port of Donbas , without any assurance, however, of a truce in the fighting. Despite the uncertainty regarding the truce in the fighting in Mariupol, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Martin Griffiths, announced on Thursday that a new convoy was heading for the martyr city, which has become one of the symbols of the Russian invasion started on February 24, in order to carry out an evacuation operation of the civilians stranded in the Azovstal factory. “As we speak, a convoy is on its way to arrive in Azovstal by tomorrow morning with the hope of recovering the remaining civilians from this dark hell, which they have inhabited for so many weeks and months, and bringing them back to safety,” Mr. Griffiths said in Warsaw. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has confirmed that it is associated with it. A hundred civilians had already been able to leave this complex last weekend, during an evacuation organized with the UN and the ICRC. Information on the situation in the Mariupol steelworks, where civilians and combatants live entrenched in huge underground galleries, nevertheless remained contradictory. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky assured Thursday evening in his daily video message that Russian forces continued to shell the steel plant despite the Russian promise of a three-day truce that began Thursday morning. Russian shelling continues to rage “while civilians still need to be evacuated, women, children”, he said. “Imagine this hell! and there are children! More than two months of non-stop bombardment, death constantly close, ”he added. Russian President Vladimir Putin for his part affirmed Thursday evening that “the Russian army was always ready to ensure the evacuation of civilians” from Azovstal, who could still be 200 in number, trapped with Ukrainian fighters in this complex. . Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov meanwhile assured that the Russian army respected the ceasefire around the factory, and that humanitarian corridors around Azovstal “were working”. What the Ukrainian fighters on the spot have denied. The deputy commander of the Azov regiment, which defends these installations, Sviatoslav Palamar, assured in a video that “bloody fights” were taking place inside the site itself and that the Russians “did not keep their promise” of truce.