On Monday, Russia announced a ceasefire in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Mariupol, and Sumy from 10 AM local time (12:30 PM IST) to set up humanitarian corridors for civilian evacuations. This ceasefire came at the ‘personal request’ of French President Emmanuel Macron, according to Russia’s defense ministry.
Previous attempts at ceasefire collapsed when Russian forces resumed offensive before the agreed-upon time. The first attempt took place on Saturday with the opening of evacuation routes in Mariupol and Volnovakha. The ceasefire was postponed, with both sides blaming each other for failing to stop shooting or shelling.
Vadym Boichenko, mayor of Mariupol, said he felt hope the first time since Russia invaded after Thursday’s deal to establish a humanitarian corridor for Mariupol. But shelling from the Russian side destroyed half of a convoy of buses Boichenko’s team had readied for the evacuation, he said.
He described residents’ fear and anger at having to flee back to the shelters on Saturday, “They lied to us, what’s more, the moment when people were trying to get out to go to these corridors, the shelling started again.”
A second attempt was also dashed within hours on Sunday, with Ukrainian authorities saying Russian forces were regrouping their forces and resuming heavy shelling of Mariupol.
Most residents of Mariupol have spent the last six days in bomb shelters to escape the constant bombardment by encircling Russian forces. They have been cut off from food, water, power, and heating supplies, according to the Ukrainian authorities.
Mayor Boichenko told Reuters in an interview, “They’ve been working methodically to make sure the city is blockaded.” The 44-year-old is staying down in a bomb shelter serving as a temporary headquarter with his team. His main priority was to help the 400,000 people stuck in the southeastern city escape. “They are destroying us,” he said.
“They will not even allow us to count the wounded and the killed because the shelling does not stop.”
Russia has repeatedly denied any plans to occupy Ukraine or target civilians since it began the invasion of Ukraine on February 24.
Monday marks the third attempt at the ceasefire.
RIA news agency published maps marking the evacuations corridors. According to them, the corridor from Kyiv will lead to Russian ally Belarus. Civilians from Kharkiv will have to travel the corridor leading to Russia. Mariupol and Sumy will lead both to other Ukrainian cities and Russia.
The Ukrainian defense ministry also informed that those who want to leave Kyiv would be able to be airlifted to Russia, adding it would use drones to monitor the evacuation.
The general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said Russian forces were “beginning to accumulate resources for the storming of Kyiv”, a city of 3 million, after days of slow progress in their main advance south from Belarus.
Published By: Khushboo Mehta
Edited By: Kritika kashyap
