On Monday, May 2, the evacuation of Mariupol residents began, an adviser to Mariupol mayor Petro Andryushchenko told Radio Liberty.
"According to our information, buses left from Mariupol. By prior arrangement, the buses will pick up people in the village of Mangush and Berdyansk. It is also allowed to join the column with their own transport. We hope that thousands of our Mariupol residents stuck on the road from Mariupol to Zaporizhzhia (they were not allowed to pass) will get to Zaporizhzhia tonight or tomorrow morning," Andryushchenko said.
He also confirmed that during the night the Russian military shelled Azovstal plant again.
In the morning, the shelling subsided. Andryushchenko attributes the cessation of shelling specifically to the evacuation.
During the first two days, the Ukrainian side evacuated more than a hundred women, children and the elderly from the territory of Azovstal Iron and Steel Works.
The head of the "Servant of the People" faction and head of the Ukrainian negotiating team from Russia David Arahamiya said that the evacuation of people from Azovstal is only the first part of the "special operation," which will result in the removal of all people from the plant.
On the morning of May 2, the evacuation from Mariupol was to continue. With the support of the UN and the Red Cross, two additional locations were agreed for people to board the evacuation convoy that would leave Mariupol. These were the village of Mangush and the Lunacharskoye Ring near Berdyansk.
