ICRC official sees hope for more evacuations from besieged Mariupol

FILE PHOTO: A bus carrying civilians evacuated from Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol arrives at a temporary accommodation centre in the village of Bezimenne, during Ukraine-Russia conflict in the Donetsk Region, Ukraine May 6, 2022. REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko

ZURICH (Reuters) - The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) hopes the successful evacuation of civilians from a besieged steel plant in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol will pave the way for more people to get out of the complex, a senior ICRC official said.

"Experience shows that a successful action helps further evacuations because now both sides have seen that it works. We hope that we can now build on this minimum of trust," Dominik Stillhart, the ICRC's director of operations, told Swiss newspaper Neue Zuercher Zeitung in an interview published on Saturday.