The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs also said that civilians evacuated from Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol have reached safety in Zaporizhzhia.

The International Red Cross also confirmed the safe arrival of the convoy.

Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk has told that hundreds of others trying to leave Mariupol and other Russian-occupied areas were being prevented from doing so by Russian forces.

Vereshchuk said that the ceasefire around Azovstal had not been long enough to get all civilians out, "so hundreds more women, children and the elderly are under the rubble."