According to Ukrainian authorities, on May 1, about 100 people were evacuated from the Azovstal metallurgical plant in Mariupol with the help of the United Nations and the Red Cross.

Natalia Usmanova, who spent several weeks in a bomb shelter at the plant, talks about the horrors of her family.

“I was scared. It seemed to me that the plant was the safest place,” she said.

According to her, initially there were about 50 people in the bomb shelter, and in the next – about 40.

Natalia recalls that there was a lack of oxygen in the bomb shelter, and people had to go up the stairs to the exit to find a place to breathe normally. “I was afraid to even go out and breathe fresh air,” she said.

According to her, people came to the bomb shelter of their own free will to escape. “When the shells started falling there, I thought my heart would stop,” Natalia recalls.

But when they heard that the shelling was approaching, some people became even more frightened and tried to leave the shelter. Imagine … at your own risk, with small children, under fire, they went to the exit and there they were told: “No, we will not let you go, we can not risk your life,” – recalls the woman. Natalia recalls, “Vasya, we don’t have to go to the bathroom with a flashlight and we don’t have to use a bag,” she told her husband.

Attempts to evacuate civilians from besieged Mariupol resumed on May 2.

“With the support of the UN and the Red Cross, two additional locations have been agreed today for people to be placed in an evacuation convoy leaving Mariupol. These are the village of Mangush and the Lunacharsky ring near Berdyansk,” the Mariupol City Council said this morning.

Those who have the opportunity to travel by their own transport were also invited to join the evacuation column.

According to BBC correspondent Laura Bicker, a convoy of more than a hundred people evacuated from the Azovstal plant and nearby houses in Mariupol is heading northwest toward Zaporozhye. She is accompanied by rescuers and medics.

It is unclear how long it will take to bring them to the evacuation camp in Zaporozhye, which is more than 200 km away, because the convoy is moving very slowly.

Some people travel the humanitarian corridor not in buses but in their own cars. Most cars are damaged, some have broken windshields, and some have films instead of windows.

According to one of the evacuees, Danylo, he had to look for spare parts for his car around the city after a fragment of a shell exploded five meters away.

“It was hard, hard, scary. I lived on a tugboat in the port of Mariupol. We couldn’t even lift our heads. It was very scary to be there,” he told the BBC.

“I’m going to go as far as possible from all this,” he added.

At the same time, the Russian Ministry of Defense claims that on May 2, 80 civilians were evacuated from Azovstal, most of whom – 69 people – left for Zaporizhia, ie the territory controlled by Ukraine. They were reportedly handed over to representatives of the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

It is also reported that on April 30, 21 civilians left the territory of Azovstal. Another 25 people left the houses adjacent to the plant. And all of them “voluntarily decided to stay” on the territory of the self-proclaimed DNR.

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