The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs is mobilizing a team to coordinate the evacuation of civilians from the Azovstal steel complex in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, the UN secretary general’s spokesman Farhan Haq said at a briefing, Trend reports citing TASS.
"Our Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs is mobilizing a team on behalf of the UN system to coordinate the evacuation of civilians in the Azovstal plant in Mariupol," he noted. "Today, we are having a follow-up discussion with the authorities in Moscow and in Kiev to develop an operational framework for the timely evacuation of civilians," Haq added.
According to him, conditions have not yet been created on the ground for an evacuation and preparations will take several days as UN and International Committee of the Red Cross personnel are being put on the ground. However, the UN refrained from clarifying how many people would participate in the operation and where they currently were.
The UN secretary general’s spokesman Stephane Dujarric said on Tuesday that Russia had agreed "in principle, to the involvement of the United Nations and the International Committee for the Red Cross in the evacuation of civilians from the Azovstal plant in Mariupol." According to him, further discussions will be held by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the Russian Defense Ministry.