Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that at least 35,000 civilians were evacuated Wednesday from several besieged Ukrainian towns.
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And the leader announced in a video message on Wednesday evening, that residents of the cities of Sumy, Enerhodar and areas near the capital, Kyiv, were evacuated through three humanitarian corridors.
He said he hoped the evacuations could continue on Thursday with three more humanitarian corridors open from the besieged towns of Mariupol for nine days, Volnovakia (southeast) and Izium (east).
The evacuations follow an agreement on Wednesday between Moscow and Kiev to open humanitarian corridors, giving hope to civilians trapped in bombed-out cities.
More than 5,000 people had been evacuated the day before from Sumy, a city of 250,000 people near the Russian border. But evacuations from the port city of Mariupol have repeatedly failed in recent days, with Kyiv and Moscow blaming each other for the failure.
A facility housing a children’s hospital and maternity ward was hit by a Russian bombardment in Mariupol on Wednesday. The municipality said on Telegram on Wednesday evening that the siege imposed on the city for nine days had killed 1,207 people.
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