Nearly 13,000 Ukrainians evacuated in 24 hours: Minister

Kiev, March 13: Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said that nearly 13,000 civilians were evacuated within a period of 24 hours via humanitarian corridors amid the ongoing war. In a video address on Saturday night, Vereshchuk said the people were evacuated on Saturday via nine corridors, reports Ukrayinska Pravda. She said that 8,000 people were evacuated from Sumy, while a total of 3,000 people departed from Krasnopillya, Lebedyn, Velyka Pisarivka and Konotop.

Almost 1,000 people were evacuated from Bucha, 600 from Hostomel and 1,264 from the combat zone in Nemishayevo, the Minister said. According to Vereshchuk, evacuation from Energodar, in the Zaporizhzhya region, was not possible as Russian forces "stopped humanitarian cargo at the checkpoint in Vasylivka, despite previous agreements".

People also could not leave from Irpin, Kozarovychi, Borodyanka, and Vorzel in the Kiev region. Also in her video address, Vereshchuk appealed to the Russian forces to release Oleksiy Ihorovych Danchenko, an employee of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine, who accompanied the evacuation buses from Hostomel, Ukrayinska Pravda reported.

According to the Minister, Danchenko has been under captivity for two days. Vereshchuk further said that Ukrainian authorities will on Sunday try to open humanitarian corridors in the Kiev and Luhansk regions, as well as evacuate people from Mariupol to Zaporizhzhya. According to authorities, Russian forces stopped humanitarian aid moving from Zaporizhzhya to Mariupol.

Church representatives had accompanied the convoy to deter the Russian military from shooting, they said. The authorities also claimed that Russian forces attacked a convoy of women and children who were trying to evacuate from the Kiev region's Baryshivskyy district. Seven people were killed, including one child, in the attack.