Ukraine hopes on Friday to evacuate civilians who are holed up in Azovstal steelworks with the last fighters defending the southern city of Mariupol.
“An operation is planned today to get civilians out of the plant,” president Volodymyr Zelensky's office said without giving details.
UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres said after meeting president Zelensky in Kyiv on Thursday that intense discussions were under way to enable the evacuation of the Azovstal steel plant, which has been pounded by Russian forces occupying Mariupol.
“We are depending on the goodwill of all parties and we are in this together,” United Nations Crisis Coordinator Amin Awad told Reuters on Friday morning.
On Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed “in principle” to evacuating the plant.
The Mariupol city council has said about 100,000 residents across the city are “in mortal danger” because of strikes in the reigon and unsanitary conditions.
