Red Cross: 1K reach safety despite failed Mariupol mission

By JAMEY KEATEN
Associated Press

GENEVA (AP) — The Ukraine office director for the International Committee of the Red Cross describes a harrowing but determined effort by a small Red Cross team that tried and failed to reach the besieged city of Mariupol. The nine members of the team gingerly navigated checkpoints staffed by jumpy Ukrainian or Russian soldiers as they spent days trying to get to Mariupol to evacuate civilians. Pascal Hundt, the head of ICRC’s delegation in Ukraine, said security officials told the team that conditions on the route prevented the evacuation from going forward. Hundt says the team did succeed in escorting to a safer city on Wednesday about 1,000 civilians who managed to leave Mariupol on their own.