INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Civilians will start being evacuated from the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol Saturday, city officials said, after surrounding Russian
forces announced a ceasefire to allow its population to leave.Mariupol, a southern city of about 450,000 people on the Azov Sea, will begin
evacuations at 0900 GMT, city hall announced on social media in a message that added, "it will be possible to leave the city by private
take people with you, fill vehicles as much as possible," the statement said.The announcement said the evacuation would last over several
vehicles that it was "strictly prohibited" to go off course from the evacuation routes.Municipal buses were also departing from three
locations in the city to help people leave, the message said.Ukraine Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk wrote on social media that some
200,000 people were expected to be extracted from the city.She wrote that a further 15,000 people would be brought from Volnovakha, a town
earlier announced a ceasefire regime from 0700 GMT to allow for evacuations."This is not an easy decision, but, as I have always said,
Mariupol is not its streets or houses
Mariupol is its population, it is you and me," mayor Vadim Boychenko was quoted as saying in the statement.With Russian troops surrounding
