Foreign Ministry: citizens evacuated from Mariupol to be transferred to Poland

Georgian citizens evacuated from the under-fire Ukrainian city of Mariupol will be transported to Poland, the Georgian Foreign Affairs Ministry said on Wednesday.

The Ministry’s update said the Georgian Embassy in Ukraine had managed to maintain communications with a group of Georgian nationals in Mariupol, despite difficulties of reaching the besieged city on Ukraine’s Azov Sea coast.

Over the last 24 hours, 60 Georgian citizens have been evacuated from the territory of Ukraine, the Ministry added, in particular from the cities of Lviv and Odesa to the neighbouring states, before their eventual departure to Georgia.

Georgian diplomatic missions in Kyiv, Odesa and Lviv, as well as in Ukraine’s neighbouring countries, have been working in an emergency 24-hour mode since the start of Russia’s invasion last month, with the goal of helping Georgian citizens evacuate from the Ukrainian territory.

By the decree of the Prime Minister of Georgia, the diplomatic missions have been instructed to provide basic assistance to Georgian nationals and organise their eventual transportation to Georgia.

Over 2,000 Georgian citizens have returned to their homeland using the assistance, with the Georgian Government also set to ensure transportation of bodies of Georgian volunteers killed in Ukraine in the recent days, the Foreign Ministry said.