Ukraine’s deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk has made an urgent appeal for a humanitarian corridor to allow civilians and wounded soldiers to evacuate from Azovstal in Mariupol. She took her Telegram and posted "We demand from the Russians an urgent humanitarian corridor from the Mariupol plant Azovstal. There are now about 1,000 civilians and 500 wounded soldiers. They all need to be removed from Azovstal today."
"I call on world leaders and the international community to focus their efforts on Azovstal now. Now this is a key point and a key moment for the humanitarian effort" she added.
Meanwhile, Russia on 24th February launched the war on Ukraine. And, according to the latest updates, Volodymyr Zelensky has said the situation in Mariupol is deteriorating with roughly 1,000 civilians remaining trapped in the Azovstal steel plant with the remaining fighters who are heavily outnumbered. However, Ramzan Kadyrov, an ally of Vladimir Putin, said he believed Russian forces would be in complete control of the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol “before lunchtime, or after lunch” on Thursday. Also, Ukraine is working to convince western allies to shift Russia’s shipments of natural gas from the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Ukraine’s pipeline, increasing Kyiv’s leverage, energy officials told Reuters. And US President Joe Biden is set to announce plans on Thursday to send additional military aid to help Ukraine fight back against the Russian invasion, according to a US official.