JAKARTA - Efforts to evacuate more civilians from the devastated Ukrainian port city of Mariupol were delayed Monday, leaving hundreds still trapped at the Azovstal steel plant, the last bastion of resistance to the Russian siege.
It was not clear what led to the suspension although a city official said earlier that Russian troops on Sunday resumed shelling the factory after the bus convoy left.
The plight of civilians trapped in Mariupol, which endured weeks of bombardment before Russian troops took most of it, has been the focus of humanitarian attention as the war has entered its third month.
Thousands of people believed to have died and those still trapped in the besieged Azovstal compound, whose network of bunkers and tunnels provide shelter, are running out of water, food and medicine.
"The situation has become a sign of a real humanitarian catastrophe," Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said.
On the other front, cities in eastern Ukraine are under intense Russian bombardment, a regional governor said. Russian rocket attacks hit the main bridge across the Dniester estuary west of the southwestern Ukrainian port city of Odesa, authorities said.
Meanwhile, the first batch of refugees from Mariupol is due to arrive in the Ukrainian-held city of Zaporizhzhia, 230 km northwest of Mariupol, on Monday.
But the city council said the buses had not yet reached the agreed pick-up point, contradicting earlier reports that they had left. The council urged the refugees to remain in place.
The civilians in question were from the city itself, not from the Azovstal steel mill.
Footage from inside the steel mill showed members of the Azov regiment helping civilians through the debris and onto buses. But hundreds remain trapped inside.
An older refugee accompanied by small children said survivors were running out of food. "Kids always want to eat. Adults can wait," he said.
It is known that Russian President Vladimir Putin's troops now control almost all of the Sea of Azov cities, linking Russian-controlled territory to the west and east. Moscow said last week it had decided not to storm the steel plant, preferring to blockade it, but the bombings have continued.
"Yesterday, as soon as the bus left Azovstal with the refugees, a new shooting began immediately," Petro Andryushchenko, an aide to the mayor of Mariupol, told Ukrainian television.
Separately, the Russian army said 126 people had left Mariupol in safe convoys over Saturday and Sunday from steel factories and other districts for separatist-held Donetsk.
Of these 57 have chosen to stay in the area, while others have decided to go to the Ukrainian-controlled parts, he said.
Earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that civilians inside a large steel plant in the war-torn port city of Mariupol had been evacuated.
An initial group of about 100 civilians were taken out of the sprawling Azovstal factory and transferred to a "controlled area," President Zelensky wrote on Twitter, citing Daily Sabah.
"Tomorrow we will meet them in Zaporizhzhia. Thank you to our team!" she says. Zaporizhzhia is about 200 kilometers (124 miles) northwest of Mariupol.
To note, the Russian military is now focused on crushing resistance in southern and eastern Ukraine, having failed to capture Kyiv in the early weeks of the war.
Its attacks have flattened cities, killed thousands of civilians and forced more than 5 million people to flee the country.
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