2,000 cars leave besieged Mariupol in first successful evacuation

Ukrainian authorities say some 2,000 cars have left the port city of Mariupol along a humanitarian evacuation route, while a further 2,000 are waiting to leave.

Mariupol’s city council said in a message on Telegram that “it is known that 2,000 cars have left Mariupol,” but did not specify how many people had left in the vehicles.

Another 160 cars had left the city on Monday, the council said.

The evacuations from the Russia-besieged city come after several attempts to transport civilians from Mariupol failed when both Moscow and Kiev accused each other of violating the ceasefire they had agreed to earlier this month.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) warned about the “dire” situation in Mariupol on Tuesday, saying it had not been able to deliver aid to the city. "The bottom line is that hundreds of thousands of people are still suffering," the ICRC said.

Some 400,000 people are left with no running water or heating in the city, as food is also running short.

More than 3 million flee Ukraine war, half of them children: UN

The conflict in Ukraine has so far “uprooted” life for more than three million people, the United Nations said on Tuesday.

"We have now reached the three-million mark in terms of movement of people out of Ukraine," said Paul Dillon, a spokesman for the UN migration agency (IOM).

IOM chief Antonio Vitorino also said in a tweet that “three million women, children and vulnerable people separated from their loved ones."

Ukraine-Russia talks resume: Ukraine

Meanwhile, a senior Ukrainian negotiator said that talks between Kiev and Moscow had resumed.

"Negotiations are ongoing," a member of the Ukraine delegation and presidential aide, Mykhailo Podolyak, wrote on Twitter. He said that his side would be pushing for a "ceasefire (and) withdrawal of troops from the territory of the country."

President Volodymyr Zelensky described the discussions as "pretty good," after a fourth round of peace talks between his government and the Kremlin in Belarus.

Russia, however, says it is too soon to draw conclusions but stresses that the fact that the talks are continuing "is in itself positive."

SS