Country, observing the orthodox christian day of the dead. but there were some glimmers of hope for some civilians sheltered at a steel plant in mariupol. cbs charlie d agata has more tonight. reporter: good evening, we got confirmation today in a president zelenskyy tweet that the evacuation of civilians at the steel works plant had begun. he said do far around a hundred people had been evacuated. they are working on the evacuation of many more in the coming days. the first few residents to escape from beneath the steel plant of mariupol described the hell they endured for weeks. ( translated ): when the shells started landing i thought my heart would stop. and i would not survive. reporter: they re now headed to the relative safety of ukrainian held territory. even though the u.n. said it had brokered a deal with the russians and red cross, the first successful evacuation after so many failed attempts still came as something of a surprise.
Services, what kind of stores for supplies? i mean, when you see the pictures of mariupol, it s utterly devastated. is there a viable part of it where people are surviving okay? reporter: well, we know there s one part of it that is not under russian control, and that s the steel works plant, that is under ukrainian control and has been since the beginning. but that s the only part that s left. so the only parts that are still, you know, inhabited, it sounds like, are actually under russian control. you were asking about whether services are available. that s a tough one. one service that isn t readily available in mariupol is internet service, which makes it very hard to answer the rest of your question. we can t really speak with a lot of people on the ground there. we don t even what s going on. i just spoke with a man who a ceo of a company there, he s trying desperately to find dozens of his workers in mariupol. all he can do is assume the worst. i can t reach them.