Evacuation and deportation from Mariupol
Railway
In the early days of the evacuation from Mariupol, additional trains were organized that were not always fully occupied despite sold-out tickets. To address this problem, Ukrzaliznytsia allowed people to board any train free of charge1.
1 Based on an analysis of the TV-7 news report, it appears that people were poorly informed about the possibility of free travel. The man in the video approached the conductor only after a journalist helped him do so. Another conductor stated that no one had asked him about free travel. A consequence of this poor communication is the segment at the end of the video showing a family that remained at the station after all trains had departed.
On February 24, four trains departed from the city2:
- in the first half of the day the Mariupol–Lviv train departed (number of carriages unknown);
- at 13:14 evacuation train No. 69/70 Mariupol–Zaporizhzhia (6 carriages, 420 seats, departed with a delay);
- at 16:18 the evacuation train Mariupol–Kryvyi Rih (10 carriages, 800 seats).
2 According to station chief Olena Frantsuzova. Mariupol Television report.
railway
Their building was shelled on March 2.
The video captures the final days of operation at the Azovstal steel plant.
At approximately 16:30, the night express No. 10/9 Mariupol–Kyiv departed3. Natalia filmed a video of herself evacuating with her children on this route.
3 According to 2019 data, this train consisted of 10 carriages with a capacity of 400 passengers. Additional carriages are unlikely to have been added.
As reported by Ukrzaliznytsia, 1,724 people were evacuated by train that day.
Natalia's family lived at 61 Kyivska Street. Had it not been for her daughter, they would have stayed in Mariupol, but the desire to spare the child from the constant explosions led her to decide on immediate evacuation.
On February 25, trains departed from the station according to the following schedule:
- at 1:20 to Lviv (10 carriages);
- at 13:15 to Lviv, train No. 70. All tickets were sold out;
- at 15:00 an evacuation train to Lviv (10 carriages, 540 seats). Over 400 people departed on it;
- in the evening — to Kyiv, trains No. 9/10 and No. 84 (approximately 17 carriages, 774 seats) at 17:15 and 17:50 respectively4;
- on this day, 5 suburban commuter trains to Volnovakha also ran.
4 Tickets to Kyiv could be purchased without difficulty even on February 24. For example, a single ticket to Kyiv on the 17:15 service cost 740 hryvnias. Demand for Lviv services was high, leaving no available seats, though people could still board them. Mariupol Television report.
Viktoria Vereshchak, who was at the station that day, recounts that due to the evening shelling of Volnovakha, the last two trains to Kyiv were unable to depart. At that moment a Lviv-bound train was also present, which came under fire but still managed to leave the city. It was the last train to successfully evacuate from Mariupol.
According to numerous accounts, trains were frequently forced to stop in open fields for several hours before continuing their journey.
On the morning of February 26, the railway line near Volnovakha was damaged and the city went silent. Four trains heading to Mariupol stopped at Polohy (two from Kyiv, one from Odesa, and one from Lviv). Passengers disembarked and made their way to Mariupol by whatever means available. From this point on, evacuation by rail became impossible.
At this point, some railway staff began evacuating by four buses that picked up anyone who wished to leave. Viktoria and her husband were on one of these buses. They successfully reached Zaporizhzhia.
Although routes continued to be scheduled up to March 3, they were invariably cancelled. Despite this, people kept coming to the station in hopes of leaving Mariupol. As station chief Olena Frantsuzova recalls, staff remained present until March 1, after which it was no longer possible to stay there.
Road transport
After the complete loss of rail connections, private vehicles became the only way to leave the city. Given the rapid advance of Russian forces, residents had less than a week to decide whether to evacuate.
Due to the absence of proper monitoring and the uncontrolled nature of the evacuation, it is impossible to establish the exact number of people who left the city. There were isolated cases where residents returned to Mariupol instead.
To form at least an approximate picture of the scale, we can refer to official figures, though these too indicate only estimated numbers.
As reported by Mariupol mayor Vadym Boichenko, up to 140,000 people managed to successfully leave the city during February, of whom 71,235 went to Zaporizhzhia (27.03.2022).
From March 1 to 13, it was nearly impossible to leave the city. Mariupol was completely encircled, the bombardment intensified, and mobile and internet communications almost entirely disappeared. In conditions of complete isolation, people did not know where to go and therefore did not risk making unnecessary attempts.
From March 14, after Russian forces captured the first streets of the city, residents gained access to the Zaporizhzhia highway and the road to Berdiansk. This information spread rapidly through the city and large traffic jams soon appeared.
The first 160 cars left the city, reached Berdiansk, and from there travelled via Tokmak to Zaporizhzhia. By morning, around 300 Mariupol residents had successfully arrived in the city. By March 15, over 2,000 vehicles had set out along this route.
If we estimate the approximate number of vehicles visible in this photo (not counting those that may be further ahead) and apply an average number of passengers, then from the roundabout to the photographer's position there could be:
1570 meters
5 meters per vehicle
=
314 vehicles
×
2 pass.
=
628 people
According to Human Rights Watch, people passed through an average of 15–20 Russian checkpoints, which significantly slowed their progress. Adult men were subject to particularly thorough scrutiny. The exact number of people who disappeared after arriving at such checkpoints is also unknown. The search process itself was highly chaotic — according to witnesses, some checkpoints would let people through quickly, while at others people were forced to spend the night.
In total, between March 14 and 31, the Zaporizhzhia city council registered 59,067 people who had left Mariupol and surrounding towns and villages by private vehicle.
In total, during March, between 75,0005 and 150,0006 people left the city for Ukrainian-controlled territory.
5 Reported by Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk (31.03.2022).
6 According to official calculations (27.03.2022). 71,235 people remained in Zaporizhzhia, the rest in other settlements.
Humanitarian catastrophe
Deportation of the population via the village of Bezymenne, March 10.
From March 3 to 10, attempts were made to agree on a route, but due to the fighting near Polohy, the decision was cancelled.
Eventually, Russian forces allowed approximately 10 trucks carrying humanitarian aid to reach Berdiansk, but permitted Ukrainian volunteers to unload only three of them there, ordering the rest to return to Zaporizhzhia.
On March 11, a convoy of 11 trucks carrying medicine, food, and drinking water along with 20 buses departed from Zaporizhzhia, but turned back just short of Vasylivka due to nearby fighting.
On March 12 the same convoy arrived in Berdiansk at around 21:00. DNR forces removed some of the food from the trucks. The following morning the convoy attempted to proceed to Mariupol, but Russian forces prohibited it.
Given the high demand following the opening of the first 'green corridors' towards Zaporizhzhia, occupation forces began forced evacuations to Russian-controlled cities almost immediately after seizing residential buildings. Due to the lack of proper communications and Russian military propaganda claiming that civilians were being 'constantly abused by the Ukrainian side', a large number of people agreed to the evacuation citing 'no other alternatives'. However, there were also cases where people were not given the right to refuse such a journey.
According to various estimates, the number of people deported in March ranges from 30,0007 to 45,0008.
7 Reported by Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk (31.03.2022).
8 According to official calculations (27.03.2022).
Russia used this primarily as a means to convince people to 'come over to their side': to obtain Russian citizenship, housing, and money.
On March 9, from the village of Vynohradne, Russians began evacuating people to Taganrog, where they were housed at Olympic Reserve School No. 13. A report by local channel DON 24 shows refugees being offered financial assistance, pensions, and enrolment of children in kindergartens and schools.
Taganrog became a 'deportation hub': people were brought here from Mariupol and other settlements and then 'resettled' across various regions of Russia.
Forced evacuation
One of the residents evacuated to Russia was Artem Tykhonov, who before the war ran a blog about cycling through the streets of Mariupol. He filmed videos of his life during the active fighting.
As Artem recalls, on March 13 a small group of DNR soldiers broke into the building and used it as an observation post. On March 16 Artem decided to evacuate, as it was on that very day that the building was almost completely destroyed by fire9. They were first taken to Bezymenne, where they were offered the option of travelling to Donetsk or Starobesheve. By March 19 at 3 a.m. they had crossed the border, where they were taken by bus to the railway station in Taganrog.
9 In reality, this had occurred considerably earlier. It can be assumed that Artem had not gone outside for a long time and therefore had not been able to closely assess the condition of the building.
