Ukraine ready for immediate talks to evacuate people from Azovstal plant - president

He said this at a joint briefing with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in Kyiv on Thursday, according to an Ukrinform correspondent.

"It is very important that Mr. Guterres raised in Moscow the issue of evacuating our people from the city of Mariupol, in particular from the Azovstal plant, because despite the Russian president's words about the alleged cessation of hostilities in Mariupol, the Azovstal plant is under barbaric bombardment by the Russian army," Zelensky said.

He stressed that Ukraine is ready for immediate talks to evacuate people from Azovstal and for the immediate implementation of the agreements reached.

"We also expect human attitude from the Russian Federation to these people. We hope that this part of the Secretary General's mission will be effective. We are ready to contribute to this in every possible way," Zelensky said.

At the same time, he said, the UN human rights monitoring mission should continue to document all crimes committed by Russia and its military.

"The truth is that the Russian invasion has brought to Ukraine so many crimes against civilians and peaceful cities that Europe has not seen since World War II," he said.

Guterres arrived in Ukraine on April 27 after his visit to Moscow where he met with Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin.

After the meeting between Putin and Guterres, a spokesman for the UN Secretary-General said that Putin allegedly agreed to involve UN agencies and the International Committee of the Red Cross in the evacuation of civilians from the Azovstal plant in Mariupol. Guterres proposed setting up a humanitarian contact group of representatives from Russia, Ukraine and the United Nations to look for opportunities for the opening of safe corridors, with local cessations of hostilities, and to guarantee that they are actually effective.

On April 27, Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov denied UN reports about an agreement with Russia on joint participation with the ICRC in the evacuation of civilians from Azovstal.