Last wave of Azovstal evacuees reach safety

STORY: The convoy arrived in the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia after dark, carrying around 175 evacuees. They included some 40 people who had been holed up for weeks alongside Ukrainian forces under heavy bombardment in Azovstal's vast network of underground shelters.

Many children and elderly people were among the exhausted-looking arrivals, who were shepherded off the buses and into a large tent where they were offered tea and a hot meal.

Mariupol has endured the most destructive fighting of the 10-week-old war. The plant is the last part of the city - a strategic southern port on the Azov Sea - still in the hands of Ukrainian fighters. Scores of civilians were trapped for weeks alongside them in the plant with little food, water or medicine.

Their evacuation, brokered by the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), began last weekend but was hampered by renewed fighting.

Lubrani said more than 600 people had evacuated Mariupol in the past 10 days, but that there were scores more who had not been able to join the convoys over the last few days.

Ukraine has said all women, children and elderly civilians have now left Azovstal, while Russia has said the evacuation of civilians from the plant is complete.

Earlier on Sunday, the remaining Ukrainian fighters at the plant vowed to continue their stand as long as they are alive.