Russia has on Monday said it will open humanitarian corridors to allow the evacuation of civilians from several Ukrainian cities experiencing heavy fighting, including the capital Kyiv and the besieged port city of Mariupol.
The country’s defence ministry made this known in a statement saying;
Russian forces, for humanitarian purposes, are declaring a ‘regime of silence’ from 10:00 am on 7 March and the opening of humanitarian corridors.
It listed evacuation routes from the capital Kyiv as well as Mariupol, Kharkiv and Sumy — all of which have been under heavy Russian attacks in recent days.
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Moscow (Russia’s capital) said the decision was taken after a “personal request” by French President Emmanuel Macron to Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
The pair spoke on Sunday in their fourth conversation since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24th.
Moscow said it had informed the United Nations (UN), the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and other international organisations of the corridors and called on Ukraine to “strictly fulfil all the conditions” of the evacuations.
It said;
We expect concrete actions from the official Kyiv authorities, as well as from the leadership of the above cities mentioned.
The Russian army pummelled Ukrainian cities from the air, land and sea on Monday, with warnings they were preparing for an assault on the capital Kyiv.
The relentless fire has pushed more than 1.5 million people across Ukraine’s borders as refugees, though many others are displaced internally or trapped in cities being reduced to rubble by Russian bombardment.
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International sanctions intended to punish Moscow have so far done little to slow the invasion, and United States said it was now discussing a ban on Russian oil imports with Europe.
The comments sent the price of Brent crude soaring to near a 14-year high, with markets in Tokyo and Hong Kong slumping.
On the ground, air sirens sounded in cities across the country, including the capital Kyiv, and intense aerial bombardment continued in the city of Kharkiv, which has endured almost non-stop fire in recent days.
“The enemy continues the offensive operation against Ukraine, focusing on the encirclement of Kyiv, Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Sumy and Mykolayiv,” the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said in a statement.
Russian forces “began to accumulate resources for the storming of Kyiv”, the statement added.
In the south of the country, regional military officials said Russia had shelled the village of Tuzly in the Odessa region from the sea, targeting “crucial infrastructure sites” but causing no injuries.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s President, Volodymr Zelensky raged against the growing destruction and death toll, accusing Russian troops of “murder, deliberate murder” in an address.
He said;
We will not forgive, we will not forget, we will punish everyone who committed atrocities in this war on our land. There will be no quiet place on this Earth except the grave.
Twelve days of fighting have killed hundreds of civilians and wounded thousands. An unending stream of people — mostly women and children — has poured into neighbouring countries in what the UN calls Europe’s fastest growing refugee crisis since World War II.
However, some have found themselves trapped, including in the southern city of Mariupol, where a second attempt to allow civilians to flee some of the worst violence of the conflict collapsed on Sunday.
Both sides accused each other of breaching a ceasefire agreement, with the International Committee of the Red Cross warning of “devastating scenes of human suffering” in the strategic city on the Azov Sea.
Western allies have imposed unprecedented sanctions against businesses, banks and billionaires in a bid to choke the Russian economy and pressure Moscow to halt its assault.
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However, the Russian leader Vladimir Putin has equated global sanctions with a declaration of war and warned that Kyiv is “putting in question the future of Ukrainian statehood”.
Moscow has been forced to restrict sales of essential goods to limit black-market speculation, while on Sunday payment giant, American Express halted operations there, a day after Visa and Mastercard announced similar steps.
Despite harsh punishments for those voicing dissent, protests in Russia against the Ukraine invasion have continued, with more than 10,000 people arrested since the operation began.
Putin has pledged the “neutralisation” of Ukraine “either through negotiation or through war”, and expectations remain low for a third round of Russian-Ukrainian talks set for Monday.
Via AFP
