Lviv (Ukraine): Russia has announced a cease-fire and the opening of humanitarian corridors in several areas of Ukraine after two failed attempts to evacuate civilians from the city of Mariupol. A Russian task force said a cease-fire would start Monday morning, the 12th day of the war, for civilians from Ukraine's capital Kyiv, the southern port city of Mariupol, Kharkiv, the second-largest city, and Sumy.
Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian civilians attempting to flee to safety Sunday were forced to shelter from Russian shelling that pummeled cities in Ukraine's center, north and south. Ukraine officials described a "catastrophic" situation during failed evacuation efforts in Kyiv's suburbs. Officials from both sides also planned a third round of talks Monday. Russia and Ukraine have traded blame for the earlier failed evacuation attempts.
Evacuation routes published by Russia's RIA Novosti news agency, citing the Defense Ministry, show that civilians will be able to leave to Russia and Belarus. Russian forces will be observing the ceasefire with drones, the task force said.
20,000 from 52 countries volunteer to fight for Ukraine
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said more than 20,000 people from 52 countries have already volunteered to fight in Ukraine, where they will serve in a newly created international legion. He did not say how many of the foreign volunteers have arrived in Ukraine. “The whole world today is on Ukraine’s side not only in words but in deeds,” Kuleba said on Ukrainian television Sunday night.
He did not name the home countries of the volunteers, saying that some of them forbid their citizens from fighting for other countries. Kuleba also urged Ukrainians living in other countries to begin a campaign to push for Ukraine’s membership in the European Union.
Well into the second week of war, Russia’s plan to quickly overrun the country and the fierce resistance Ukraine is putting up against it has sent energy prices surging worldwide, stocks plummeting, and is threatening the food supply and livelihoods of people around the world who rely on farmland in the Black Sea region. The death toll from the fighting, meanwhile, remains unclear. The U.N. says it has confirmed just a few hundred civilian deaths but also warned that the number is a vast undercount. Police for the Kharkiv region said Monday that 209 people have died there alone — 133 of them civilians.
The Russian invasion has also pushed 1.5 million people to flee the country, creating what the head of the U.N. refugee agency called “the fastest-growing refugee crisis in Europe since World War II.” Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshchuk called the proposed evacuation routes to Russia and Belarus “unacceptable." Belarus is a key ally of Putin and served as a launching ground for the invasion.
The Ukrainian government is proposing eight humanitarian corridors, including from Mariupol, that would allow civilians to travel to the western regions of Ukraine where there is no Russian shelling. “Providing evacuation routes into the arms of the country that is currently destroying yours is a nonsense,” said U.K. Europe Minister James Cleverly.
The Russian proposal was reminiscent of similar ones in Syria. In 2016, a joint Russian and Syrian proposal to set up humanitarian corridors out of besieged opposition-held eastern Aleppo was deeply criticized on humanitarian grounds. Human rights activists said the tactic, coupled by brutal sieges, effectively gave residents a choice between fleeing into the arms of their attackers or dying under bombardment.
Meanwhile, Russian forces continued their offensive, opening fire on the city of Mykolaiv, 480 kilometers (300 miles) south of the capital, according to Ukraine’s General Staff. Rescuers said they were putting out fires in residential areas caused by rocket attacks. Emergency officials in the Kharkiv region said that overnight shelling killed at least eight people and wrecked residential buildings, medical and education facilities and administrative buildings. Shelling also continued in the suburbs of Kyiv, including Irpin, which has been cut off from electricity, water and heating for three days.
“Russia continues to carry out rocket, bomb and artillery strikes on the cities and settlements of Ukraine,” the General Staff said. The West has broadly backed Ukraine, offering aid and weapon shipments and slapping Russia with vast sanctions. But no NATO troops have been sent to Ukraine. On the other hand, Zelenskyy has heaped criticism on Western leaders for not responding with more force to Russia. He reiterated a request for foreign forces to impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine, which NATO so far has ruled out because of concerns that such an action would lead to a far wider war. Zelenskyy also asked the United States and NATO countries to send more warplanes to Ukraine and for more sanctions against Russia.
Russia has become increasingly isolated in the days since the invasion began, as sanctions forced dozens of multinational companies to end or scale back their work in the country and Moscow dramatically restricted independent reporting on the conflict. The ruble has plunged in value, and Russia's extensive trade ties with the West have been all but severed.
Also read: Mediation, missiles, mind games: 10 latest developments as Russia-Ukraine war completes 11 days
(With agency inputs)
