More than 160 civilian cars have been able to drive out of the besieged southeastern Ukrainian city of Mariupol along a humanitarian evacuation route, the city authorities said on Monday.
"As of 13:00 pm (1100 GMT), more than 160 private cars have managed to leave Mariupol on the road to Berdyansk," the city council said on Telegram.
It added that "currently the ceasefire regime is being maintained along the humanitarian corridor" and the cars had passed Berdyansk, another coastal town to the west, and were heading towards the city of Zaporizhzhia to the northwest.
The successful evacuation comes after several failed attempts since Russian forces surrounded the port city on the Azov Sea early this month.
Heavy bombardment has left some 400,000 inhabitants with no running water or heating and food running short.
More than 2,100 residents have been killed since the Russian invasion, according to the city authorities.
Ukraine and aid agencies have warned that Mariupol faces a "humanitarian catastrophe".
"Time is running out for the hundreds of thousands trapped by the fighting," the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said Sunday.
A humanitarian convoy that left for Mariupol from Zaporizhzhia on Saturday was set to continue on its way Monday morning.
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