First civilians leave Mariupol steel plant

Hundreds remain holed up with Ukrainian troops.

The first civilians evacuated from the bombed-out steel plant that has become the last stronghold of Ukrainian fighters in Mariupol slowly made their way toward safety Monday, as others who managed to escape the city described terrifying weeks of bombardment and deprivation.

More than 100 civilians — including elderly women and mothers with small children — left the sprawling Azovstal steel mill on Sunday and set out in buses and ambulances for the Ukrainian-controlled city of Zaporizhzhia, about 140 miles (230 kilometers) to the northwest, according to authorities and video released by the two sides.

Mariupol Deputy Mayor Sergei Orlov told the BBC that the evacuees were making slow progress and would probably not arrive on Monday as hoped for.

At least some of them were apparently taken to a village controlled by Moscow-backed separatists. The Russian military said that some chose to stay in separatist areas, while dozens left for Ukrainian-held territory. The information could not be independently verified.

In the past, Ukraine has accused Moscow’s troops of taking civilians against their will to Russia. Moscow has said the people wanted to go to Russia.

Orlov said high-level negotiations were underway among Ukraine, Russia and international organizations on more evacuations.

The steel-plant evacuation, if successful, would represent rare progress in easing the human cost of the almost 10-week war, which has caused particular suffering in Mariupol. Previous attempts to open safe corridors out of the southern port city and other places have broken down, with Ukrainian officials repeatedly accusing Russian forces of shooting and shelling along agreed-on evacuation routes.

Before the weekend evacuation overseen by the United

Nations and the Red Cross, about 1,000 civilians were believed to be in the steel plant, along with an estimated 2,000 Ukrainian fighters. As many as 100,000 people overall may still be in Mariupol, which had a prewar population of more than 400,000.

Russia has demanded that the fighters inside the plant surrender; they have refused.

In other developments, European Union energy ministers met Monday to discuss new sanctions against the Kremlin, which could include restrictions on Russian oil. But some Russia-dependent members of the 27-nation bloc, including Hungary and Slovakia, are wary of taking tough action.

LYNSEY ADDARIO/THE NEW YORK TIMES A woman identified only as Natalia, 50, and her mother Dina, 81, arrive in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia after being evacuated from the Russianoccupied Ukrainian port city of Mariupol on Monday.