Some 13,120 Turkish citizens have been evacuated from Ukraine amid the ongoing Russian invasion, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said on Tuesday.
Çavuşoğlu stated on Twitter that another 699 citizens were leaving the Ukrainian cities of Kyiv, Lviv, Odessa, Sumy, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and Chaplynka on Tuesday.
He added that since the start of the war, 4,572 people have been assisted at crossing borders and that plans were continuing for the safe evacuation of Turkish citizens.
At least 83 crew members were evacuated from Turkish ships docked at Ukrainian ports as the war continues in the country, Turkish officials also said Wednesday.
The crew was on board 23 Turkish-flagged or -owned vessels, Turkey's Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs said in a tweet.
The directorate-general has been working with the Foreign Ministry to evacuate other people, it added.
"Cargo operations in Russian ports continue, except for the Sea of Azov ports," it said.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry continues to evacuate Turkmen and Azerbaijanis along with Turkish citizens.
Russia’s war on Ukraine, which began on Feb. 24, has drawn international condemnation, led to financial sanctions on Moscow and spurred an exodus of global firms from Russia.
At least 406 civilians have been killed and 801 others injured in Ukraine since the beginning of the war, according to United Nations figures. But the international body has maintained that conditions on the ground have made it "difficult to verify" the true number of civilian casualties.
