Russia will cease firing from 10am Moscow time (2am EST) to allow civilians to leave from Kyiv, Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv and Mariupol, according to a Tass…
Information about corridors from Kyiv, Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv and Mariupol will be sent to Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk, said Mikhail Mizintsev, head of the Russian National Defence Control Centre.
Vereshchuk said earlier on Tuesday that authorities had once again not been able to evacuate civilians from Mariupol. “Given the deteriorating humanitarian situation … and in order to ensure the safety of civilians and foreign citizens, Russia will observe a regime of silence from 10 am Moscow time on March 9 and is ready to provide humanitarian corridors,” Tass cited Mizintsev as saying.Mizintsev earlier said Ukrainian authorities had endorsed only one civilian evacuation route from areas affected by fighting out of 10 that were proposed, including five towards territory controlled by Kyiv.
The United Nations human rights office said it had verified 1,335 civilian casualties in Ukraine, including 474 killed and 861 injured, since the invasion began on Feb. 24. The real toll is likely higher, it said.In Mariupol, hundreds of thousands of people have been sheltering under bombardment for more than a week. Many tried to leave on Tuesday along a safe corridor but Ukraine’s foreign ministry said Russian forces violated a ceasefire and shelled it.
International Committee of the Red Cross spokesman Ewan Watson said people in Mariupol were fast running out of electricity, heat, food, and drinking water.The number of refugees created by the biggest assault on a European country since the Second World War has now surpassed 2 million.