DPR Evacuates Over 370 Civilians From Mariupol To Bezimenne Village Over Past 24 Hours

DONETSK (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th May, 2022) More than 370 people, including 42 children, were evacuated from Mariupol to the village of Bezimenne located in the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) over the past 24 hours, the DPR territorial defense headquarters said on Saturday.

"Over the past 24 hours, from 8:00 a.m. (06:00 GMT) on May 27 to 8:00 a.m. (06:00 GMT) on May 28, 374 people, including 42 children, were evacuated from Mariupol to Bezimenne, Novoazovsk district," the statement read.

A total of 37,334 people have been evacuated to Bezimenne since March 5.

Mariupol, a coastal city in the breakaway DPR with a population of 450,000, went under the control of Ukrainian troops during the 2014 offensive. On May 20, Russian Defense Ministry announced that the territory of the Azovstal metallurgical plant in Mariupol, where a group of Ukrainian militants from the nationalist battalion Azov was blocked since April 21 this year, was completely liberated.

On February 24, Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine after the breakaway republics of Donetsk and Luhansk appealed for help in defending themselves against Ukrainian forces. Russia said that the aim of its operation is the "demilitarization and denazification" of Ukraine.