The sprawling Azovstal industrial complex and its many bunkers and tunnels became a refuge for both civilians and Ukrainian fighters as Moscow laid siege to Mariupol.

The United Nations and International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) coordinated the five-day operation that began on April 29 to bring out women, children and the elderly from the steel works.

Russia shells Mariupol plant with civilians still reported trapped

Other families and individuals from outside the steel works joined the convoy of buses and ambulances on its way, the ICRC said.

“I can’t believe I made it, we just want rest,” said Alina Kozitskaya, who spent weeks sheltering in a basement with her bags packed waiting for a chance to escape.

One middle-aged woman walked away from the evacuation bus sobbing. She was comforted by an aid worker.

A few women who greeted the convoy held up handmade signs, calling on Ukrainian authorities to evacuate the soldiers – their relatives and loved ones – who are trapped in Azovstal and encircled by Russian forces.

“We’re scared that after the evacuation of civilians, the guys will be left there. We don’t see any sign of help,” said Ksenia Chebysheva, 29, whose husband is among Azov Regiment troops there.

Chebysheva, who held up a sign in English saying “Save the Military from Azovstal”, said she had heard that her husband was still alive on April 26 but had had no news since.

“They don’t have food, water or ammunition,” shouted another woman. “They’re forgotten by everyone.”

Hospitals had been stocked up and supported by volunteers to prepare for the arrival of the convoy, Dr Dorit Nizan, World Health Organization (WHO) Incident Manager for Ukraine, said by Zoom from Zaporizhzhia.

Johnson quotes Churchill, hails Ukraine’s ‘finest hour’ in resistance to Russia

“We are ready for … burns, fractures and wounds, as well as diarrhoea, respiratory infections,” she said. “We are also ready to see if there are pregnant women, children with malnutrition. We are all here and the health system is well prepared.”

She said some people had arrived recently by making their own way from villages near Mariupol and had minor injuries, but that mental health was the “big issue”.

“Many cried when they arrived when they were met by family members. It was very moving,” she said.

In Mariupol, 64-year-old resident Tatyana Bushlanova is so used to Russian bombardments that she does not flinch when shells explode.

“You wake up in the morning and you cry. You cry in the evening. I don’t know where to go at all … everything is destroyed, everything is broken,” Bushlanova said on Monday, wiping away tears on a bench outside a charred apartment block.

“It does not stop. I don’t know how to stay here during the winter. We don’t have a roof, don’t have windows. Everything is very complicated.”

Putin speaks with Macron

Russian President Vladimir Putin has told French President Emmanuel Macron that Moscow is ready for talks with Ukraine.

The Kremlin said in its readout of Tuesday’s call that “despite Kyiv’s inconsistency and its lack of readiness for serious work, the Russian side is still ready for dialogue”.

The Kremlin added that Putin also informed Macron about the course of Russia’s “special military operation”. It added that the two leaders also discussed the global food security and Putin underlined that Western sanctions have exacerbated the situation.

During the telephone conversation with his French counterpart, Putin urged the West to put pressure on Kyiv to halt “atrocities”, Russian news agencies said.

Putin told Macron that the West could help end “war crimes [and] massive shelling of towns and settlements in Donbas” leading to civilian casualties.

Russia denies alleged war crimes by its own forces in Ukraine and has blamed the deaths of civilians on what it calls nationalists and “neo-Nazis”, a claim dismissed by Kyiv and the West.

“The West could help put an end to these atrocities by exerting appropriate influence on the Kyiv authorities and by halting arms deliveries to Ukraine”, RIA news agency cited the Kremlin as saying.

Ukraine evacuees flee to safety after ordeal in Mariupol steel works

Putin also said the West must stop supplying weapons to Ukraine and accused Kyiv of not taking talks to end the conflict seriously, the Kremlin said.

Macron for his part, according to the Kremlin, said global food security was under threat due to the Ukraine conflict.

Macron is one of the few Western leaders to speak to Putin since Moscow moved troops into Ukraine on February 24, spending hours on telephone calls trying to negotiate a resolution to the conflict.

The conflict has killed thousands of people and displaced more than 13 million, creating the worst refugee crisis in Europe since World War II.