Ukraine aims to evacuate 6,000 from besieged city of Mariupol on Wednesday

Ukraine hopes to send 90 buses to the besieged southern city of Mariupol on Wednesday to evacuate about 6,000 women, children and elderly people, the city's mayor said on national television.

Mayor Vadym Boichenko, who has left Mariupol, said he hoped a preliminary agreement with Russia on establishing a safe corridor would be firmed up and hold. He said about 100,000 civilians remained in Mariupol and that tens of thousands had been killed in the Russian siege of the city on the Sea of Azov.