The self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) says a total of 517 people were evacuated from the besieged city of Mariupol to the center about 25 kilometers to the east in the 24 hours to 8 a.m. Wednesday (local time).
It said 61 of the evacuees were children, but it’s unclear how many of the total were evacuated from the Azovstal steel plant.
DailyExpertNews cannot verify the reported figures.
The DPR has set up a tent shelter in Bezimenne, where people who leave Mariupol are screened.
Ukrainian officials have described the facility, and three other similar facilities around Mariupol, as filtration centers where people are often subjected to abuse and harassment, as well as long delays.
The DPR’s Emergencies Ministry manages the center in Bezimenne, which, according to the DPR, has seen more than 27,000 passers-by since early March.
Russia’s defense ministry has previously commented on the number of civilians being evacuated from the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, saying some of them have decided to stay in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic.
When evacuees emerge from the sprawling complex, they are given the choice of traveling to Ukrainian or Russian territory.
Those wishing to enter Ukrainian territory will be delivered to representatives of the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross, state TASS news agency reports.
Some background: A DailyExpertNews investigation in April revealed that Russian troops and allied separatist soldiers took the residents of Mariupol to a so-called “filtration center” in Bezimenne, where they were registered before being sent to Russia — many against their will.
The Ukrainian government and local Mariupol officials say tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilians have been forcibly deported to the Donetsk People’s Republic and Russia since the start of the war.
In April, DailyExpertNews interviewed 10 people, including local residents of Mariupol and their loved ones, who were taken against their will to Russian-occupied cities by Russian and DPR soldiers before being deported to the Russian Federation.
DailyExpertNews spoke to two people who were taken to Bezimenne before being sent to Russia. They described a huge military tent, where Russian and DPR soldiers processed hundreds of people – fingerprints were taken, photographed, their phones searched, interrogated, passports reviewed and registered in databases.