In the early days of the evacuation from Mariupol, additional trains were organized that were not always fully occupied, despite the tickets being sold out. To address this issue, 'Ukrzaliznytsia' allowed people to board any train free of charge¹.

1 Analyzing the report by TV-7, it can be inferred that people were poorly informed about the possibility of free travel. The man in the video approached the conductor only after a journalist from the channel helped him. Another conductor mentioned that no one had asked him about free travel. The result of the poor communication is a segment at the end of the video showing a family that remained at the station after all the trains had departed.

On February 24, 4 trains were sent from the city²:

• in the morning, the "Mariupol-Lviv" train left (the number of cars is unknown);

• at 1:14 pm evacuation flight No. 69/70 "Mariupol-Zaporizhzhia" (6 cars, 420 seats, departure was late);

• at 4:18 pm evacuation flight of the "Mariupol-Kryvyi Rih" train (10 cars, 800 seats).

2 According to the head of the station Olena Frantsuzova. Mariupol television report.

At approximately 4:30 pm, night express No. 10/9 "Mariupol-Kyiv" left³. Natalia took a video of how she and her children evacuated along this route.

3 According to 2019 data, this train consisted of 10 cars, which was designed for 400 passengers. It is unlikely that additional carriages were added.

As "Ukrzaliznytsia" reported, 1,724 people were evacuated by trains that day.

On February 25, trains departed from the station according to the following schedule:

• 1:20 am to Lviv (10 cars);

• 1:15 pm to Lviv, Train No. 70. All tickets were sold out;

• 3:00 pm evacuation train to Lviv (10 cars, 540 seats). More than 400 people departed on it;

• in the evening - to Kyiv No. 9/10 and No. 84 (probably 17 cars, 774 seats) at 17:15 and 17:50, respectively⁴;

• on this day, 5 suburban electric trains also ran to Volnovakha.

4 Tickets to Kyiv could be purchased without problems even on February 24. For example, one ticket to Kyiv at 17:15 cost 740 hryvnias. There was a great demand for flights to Lviv, because of which there were no seats left, but people could still get on them. Mariupol television report.

Victoria Vereshchak, who on that day was at the station, recounts that due to the evening shelling of Volnovakha, the last two trains to Kyiv were unable to depart. At that time, there was a train to Lviv that came under shelling but still managed to leave the city. It was the last one to successfully depart from Mariupol.
According to numerous testimonies, trains often had to stop in the middle of the field for several hours before continuing on their way.

In the morning of February 26, the railway connection near Volnovakha was damaged, and the city no longer maintained contact. Four trains heading to Mariupol stopped in Polohy (two from Kyiv, one from Odesa, and one from Lviv). Passengers left the train and reached Mariupol by all available means. From this point, evacuation by rail became impossible.
At this moment, part of the railway staff began to evacuate using four buses that picked up anyone who wanted to leave. Victoria and her husband were on one of these buses and successfully reached Zaporizhzhia.
Although the schedules continued to be planned until March 3, they were always canceled. Despite this, people continued to come to the station hoping to leave Mariupol. As station chief Olena Frantsuzova recalls, the staff was present until March 1, after which it became impossible to stay there.

After the complete loss of railway connections, private cars became the only way to leave the city. Given the rapid advance of Russian troops, residents had less than a week to make a decision about evacuation.
Due to the lack of proper monitoring and the uncontrolled nature of the evacuation, it is impossible to determine the exact number of people who left the city. There were cases where residents actually returned to Mariupol.
To create at least an approximate idea of the scale, we can rely on official data, but even they only provide an estimate.
As reported by Mariupol mayor Vadym Boychenko, up to 140,000 people managed to successfully leave the city in February, including 71,235 to Zaporizhzhia (as of March 27, 2022).

From March 1 to 13, it was nearly impossible to leave the city. Mariupol was completely surrounded, bombardments intensified, and mobile and internet connections almost completely disappeared. In conditions of total isolation, people did not know where to go and therefore did not risk moving unnecessarily.

From March 14, after the Russians captured the first streets of the city, residents gained access to the Zaporizhzhia Highway and the road to Berdiansk. News of this began to spread quickly throughout the city, which soon led to the first major traffic jams.
The first 160 cars left the city, reached Berdiansk, and from there, through Tokmak, traveled to Zaporizhzhia. By the morning, about 300 Mariupol residents had successfully reached the city. On March 15, already more than 2,000 cars had taken this route.

Russian checkpoint near the "Metro" hypermarket. Zaporizhzhia Highway, March 17.

© Mikhail Tereshchenko / TASS

If we calculate the approximate number of cars in this photo (without considering those that might be ahead) and average the number of passengers, from the roundabout to the photographer's position, there could be:

According to Human Rights Watch, on average, people passed through 15-20 Russian checkpoints, which significantly hindered their progress. Adult men were scrutinized particularly closely. The exact number of people who disappeared after arriving at such checkpoints is also unknown. The search process itself was extremely chaotic, with some checkpoints allowing quick passage, while others required overnight stays, according to witnesses.
From March 14 to March 31, the Zaporizhzhia City Council registered 59,067 people who left Mariupol and nearby towns and villages in private cars.
In total, between 75,000¹ and 150,000² people left the city for Ukrainian-controlled territories in March.

Given the high demand after the opening of the first 'green corridors' towards Zaporizhzhia, occupation forces began forcibly evacuating people to Russian-controlled cities almost immediately after capturing buildings. Due to the lack of proper communication and Russian military propaganda about supposed 'constant mistreatment of civilians by the Ukrainian side,' many people agreed to the evacuation due to 'lack of other alternatives.' However, there were cases where people were not given the option to refuse this journey.
According to various estimates, the number of deported people in March ranges from 30,000¹ to 45,000².

Russia primarily used this as a way to convince people to 'switch to their side': to obtain corresponding citizenship, housing, and money.
On March 9, from the village of Vynohradne, Russians began evacuating people to Taganrog, where they were housed in Olympic Reserve School No. 13. A report from the local TV channel 'DON 24' shows how refugees were offered financial aid, pensions, and to enroll their children in kindergartens and schools.
Taganrog became a 'deportation center': people from Mariupol and other settlements were brought here and then 'resettled' across various regions of Russia.

One of the residents evacuated to Russia was Artem Tikhonov, who, before the war, ran a blog about cycling through the streets of Mariupol. He filmed his surviving during the active fighting.

As Artem recalls, on March 13, a small group of 'DPR' soldiers broke into the house and used it as an observation post. On March 16, Artem made the decision to evacuate because, on that very day, the house almost completely burned down³. They were first taken to Bezimenne, where they were offered to go to Donetsk or Starobeshevo. Already on March 19 at 3 am, they crossed the border, where buses took them to the train station in Taganrog.

3 In fact, this happened much earlier. It can be assumed that Artem did not go outside for a long time to inspect the condition of the building in detail.

It was a 'special train'. At first, even the conductors did not know the route. It became known only during departure: the stop was the city of Tula. From there, people were put on buses and taken to the village of Streltzi. They were settled in rooms and fed. Special services constantly visited, dealing with the issuance of Russian documents. Everything was done without explanations.
Artem decided to stay in Rostov.

One of the deportees was also Oleksandr Korniytsky, who in an interview with the 'Voices of the Peaceful' project shared his deportation story. He lived with his wife on Azovstal Street. On March 11, he and nearly 200 others were first taken to Bezimenne, and from there immediately put on a train to Taganrog. It was a similar 'special train' whose route was unknown to both the conductors and all the passengers. This time, they were taken to Tambov, where they were also settled in the Kalinin sanatorium.
After a few months, Oleksandr and his wife successfully returned to Ukraine.

People were actively lured with preferential mortgages for housing and promised stable financial support. In an interview for 'Siberia. Realities', displaced persons currently living in the city of Vranghel, located 200 kilometers from Vladivostok on the Pacific Ocean (approximately 9500 km from Taganrog), shared their experiences.
They were temporarily housed in the local 'Vostok' hotel, but only for a month; what happens next is unknown. Moreover, it became known that benefits are provided only to young families, and financial assistance is paid only after obtaining citizenship. Due to the difficult conditions, most displaced people express a desire to move to the West: Poland, Germany, and other European countries, but they are not given such an opportunity.

By early May, the Russian side announced the deportation of 1.1 million people from Donetsk region. Since March, the number of deportations has been increasing daily.
Although some managed to leave Russia, it required significant effort. The approximate number of such Ukrainians remains unknown.