The UN chief says that 500 people have now been evacuated from the Azovstal steel plant, Mariupol and surrounding areas.

“In a joint United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross operation, 2 safe passage convoys successfully evacuated nearly 500 people from the Azovstal plant, Mariupol and surrounding areas.

I hope that continued coordination with Moscow and Kyiv will lead to more humanitarian pauses to allow civilians safe passage”, - tweeted Antonio Guterres.

Late on Thursday, Zelensky said in a video address that more than 150 people from Azovstal and more than 300 people from Mariupol and its suburbs had been evacuated this week.