Refugees unable to flee siege in Mariupol
While tens of thousands of Ukrainians were able to flee the country via humanitarian corridors on Thursday, those still in Mariupol have not been able to leave, as the city is under total siege by Russian forces.
A second attempt for residents to leave on Thursday was abandoned as the Russian military continued to bombard the Mariupol and the humanitarian passages surrounding it, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said during a press briefing Thursday.
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About 300,000 are suffering from lack of water, power and food, said Iryna Vereshchuk, a vice prime minister helping oversee the evacuations. Russia also destroyed and mined surrounding cities, Vereshchuk said.
Albert Khomyak, who lived in Mariupol's eastern outskirts, told ABC News that Russian troops have now entered their street.
"They are trying to destroy Mariupol, that way to destroy the resistance," he said.
Khomyak was somehow able to drive with his family in their own car out of the city, he said.
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About 16,000 people are estimated to have evacuated Ukraine on Thursday now that the corridors near the northern Sumy region and some of the towns just northwest of Kyiv have been firmed up, Russian officials said.
But the ceasefires that allow these evacuations are temporary and very imperfect, and sporadic firing still happens throughout them.
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The ceasefires then end at 9 p.m., when full-scale offensive attacks from Russia begin again.
-ABC News' Fidel Pavlenko and Natalie Vikhrov