(Reuters) - Ukraine's deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk on Thursday demanded Russia urgently allow the evacuation of civilians and wounded soldiers from the besieged Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol via a humanitarian corridor.

       "There are about 1,000 civilians and 500 wounded soldiers there. They all need to be pulled out of Azovstal today," Vereshchuk said in an online post.

       (Reporting by Aleksandar Vasovic and Pavel Polityuk; Editing by Toby Chopra)