After a long and arduous journey, evacuees from the besieged Azovstal steel factory in Mariupol were expected to arrive at a processing center in Zaporizhzhia on Monday.

However, since then, the media center, appears to have more members of the press than families who have managed to evacuate.

The Azovstal evacuees are now anticipated to arrive in large numbers later today.

For the time being, precisely ordered rows of red-and-white plastic tape and wooden crates determine where vehicles should enter to be registered and processed.

While medical personnel stand ready in a vast white tent to coordinate the food, clothing, and toys that await evacuees.

Families have steadily poured into the city from settlements, south of Zaporizhzhia, and other parts of Ukraine.

Some had grown tired of trying to enter Ukrainian-controlled territory for days. Others overcame the emotion as they saw their loved ones.

Natasha told that she was fortunate.

On Monday morning, her family left Dniprorudne, a tiny town north of Melitopol, about 6 a.m.

She explained, “There’s a large convoy of roughly 50 vehicles, but they’ve become stalled in Vasilivka.”

“The Russians refused to let them go,” she added.