Russian mass media claim that civilians from Azovstal choose whether to go to Russia or to Ukraine

Pro-Kremlin media RIA Novosti says that people evacuated from Mariupol's Azovstal accompanied by the UN and the ICRC workers allegedly decide whether "to go to Russia or Ukraine." At the same time, the Russian side previously agreed to evacuate people to the Zaporizhzhia Oblast.

Russian media were the first to publish information about the evacuation of people from Azovstal and "interviews with Mariupol residents," which said that the Ukrainian military allegedly "kept them at the Azov steel work." However, Ukrainian fighters have repeatedly reported that Russian occupiers didn't stop the shelling of Azovstal, although civilians were hiding there.

Russian media also accuse President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the International Committee of the Red Cross of announcing the beginning of the evacuation only a few hours after its start.

Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine Iryna Vereshchuk noted that the evacuation was not announced immediately so that people could get out alive and unharmed: "Do not believe everything you have heard and seen on the occupiers' social media. More than 100 people have been evacuated, the operation continues."

The evacuation operation began on Friday, April 29, with the departure of a joint UN-ICRC convoy, which driven about 230 km and reached Azov steel work in Mariupol on Saturday morning, Saviano Abreu, spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a comment to hromadske.

"It has been agreed with both sides of the conflict that civilians who have been on Azovstal for almost two months (women, children and the elderly) will be evacuated to Zaporizhzhia Oblast, where they will receive urgent humanitarian support, including psychological assistance," says the spokesman in the statement.

We remind that on the evening of May 1, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that the evacuation of civilians from Azov steel works had begun.

The head of the presidential faction "Servant of the People" and a member of the negotiating team with Russia, Davyd Arakhamia, said that this was the first time since the beginning of the blockade of Azovstal when Ukraine managed to evacuate 100 civilians. These include women, children, and the elderly. The evacuation was held with the support of the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross.