The United Nations is doing everything possible to ensure the evacuation of civilians from the "apocalypse" in the besieged port city of Mariupol, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in Kyiv, after the meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky.

He said the tens of thousands of civilians and fighters believed to be left in the besieged and destroyed coastal city of Mariupol, were in “desperate need” of a humanitarian corridor to escape the horrors of the last redoubt against the Russian invaders, of the Azovstal steel plant complex.

“Mariupol is a crisis within a crisis. Thousands of civilians need life-saving assistance. Many are elderly, in need of medical care or have limited mobility. They need an escape route out of the apocalypse”.

He recalled that in his meeting with President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Tuesday, there had been an agreement “in principle” to involve the UN and Red Cross, to aid the evacuation of civilians.

“Today, President Zelensky and I had the opportunity to address this issue”, he said, adding that “as we speak, there are intense discussions to move forward on this proposal to make it a reality”.