Dozens of evacuees who cowered for weeks in the bunkers of a steel works in Russian-occupied Mariupol reached the safety of Kyiv-controlled Zaporizhzhia on Tuesday where hospitals were ready to treat people for anything from burns to malnutrition.

Exhausted-looking people, including young children and pensioners laden with bags, clambered off buses that pulled into the car park of a shopping centre in Zaporizhzhia in southern Ukraine not far from the front lines.

More than 200 civilians remain in the Azovstal steel plant, according to Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boichenko, with a total of 100,000 civilians still in the city that has been devastated by weeks of Russian siege and shelling.

“Thanks to the operation, 101 women, men, children, and older persons could finally leave the bunkers below the Azovstal steelworks and see the daylight after two months,” Osnat Lubrani, UN humanitarian coordinator for Ukraine, said.

The sprawling Azovstal industrial complex and its many bunkers and tunnels became a refuge for both civilians and Ukrainian fighters as Moscow laid siege to Mariupol.

The UN and International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) coordinated the five-day operation that began on April 29 to bring out women, children and the elderly from the steel works.

Other families and individuals from outside the steel works joined the convoy of buses and ambulances on its way, the ICRC said.

“I can’t believe I made it, we just want rest,” said Alina Kozitskaya, who spent weeks sheltering in a basement with her bags packed waiting for a chance to escape.

One middle-aged woman walked away from the evacuation bus sobbing. She was comforted by an aid worker.

A few women who greeted the convoy held up handmade signs, calling on Ukrainian authorities to evacuate the soldiers — their relatives and loved ones — who are trapped in Azovstal and encircled by Russian forces.

“We’re scared that after the evacuation of civilians, the guys will be left there. We don’t see any sign of help,” said Ksenia Chebysheva, 29, whose husband is among Azov Regiment troops there.

Chebysheva, who held up a sign in English saying, “Save the Military from Azovstal”, said she had heard that her husband was still alive on April 26 but had had no news since. “They don’t have food, water or ammunition,” shouted another woman.

Hospitals had been stocked up and supported by volunteers to prepare for the arrival of the convoy, Dr Dorit Nizan, WHO incident manager for Ukraine, said. “We are ready for, burns, fractures and wounds, as well as diarrhoea, respiratory infections. We are also ready to see if there are pregnant women, children with malnutrition,” she said.