Ukrainians Fleeing Mariupol Reach Safety in Zaporizhzhia

Irina fooled the Russian guards at a checkpoint in Vasylivka by telling them her younger son, Ihor, was very sick and needed to go to a hospital in Zaporizhzhia, April 27, 2022. (Yan Boechat/VOA)

This woman, her husband and her mother were able to leave Vasylivka with their 10 dogs. They also lied to the Russian guards at the checkpoints, saying they needed to go to a hospital in Zaporizhzhia, April 27, 2022. (Yan Boechat/VOA)

Maria cries after meeting a friend at this refugee center in Zaporizhzhia. She spent the last two months with her son in the subterranean tunnels of the Azovstal steel works in Mariupol until they were rescued by the U.N. and the International Red Cross a

A young boy, who spent the last weeks inside the shelters of the Azovstal steel works, waits in a bus to be taken to a hotel after traveling for two days in a convoy organized by the U.N. and the International Red Cross from Mariupol to Zaporizhzhia, May

A girl who recently arrived from Mariupol waits in a bus with her dog to be taken to a hotel with her family in Zaporizhzhia, May 3, 2022. (Yan Boechat/VOA)

Relatives of soldiers of the Azov Battalion, who were fighting against the Russian troops inside the Azovstal steel plant, ask the U.N. to try to rescue the soldiers along with the civilians, in Zaporizhzhia, May 3, 2022. (Yan Boechat/VOA)

A couple that left a small village around Mariupol waits as their documents are checked at a refugee center in Zaporizhzhia, May 4, 2022. (Yan Boechat/VOA)

Internally displaced people who left the region around Mariupol wait in a bus to be taken to hotels and shelters in Zaporizhzhia, May 4, 2022. (Yan Boechat/VOA)

A police officer checks the documents of a man who had just left Mariupol in a civilian convoy, at a refugee center in Zaporizhzhia, May 4, 2022. (Yan Boechat/VOA)

A family rests after travelling for hours from a small city near Mariupol, in a refugee center in Zaporizhzhia, May 4, 2022. (Yan Boechat/VOA)