The planned establishment of a humanitarian corridor for the city of Mariupol in south-eastern Ukraine has failed for the time being. This was announced by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). “The scenes in Mariupol and other cities today are heartbreaking,” the ICRC said. The organization remains in touch with all parties involved to facilitate a safe evacuation of civilians from various cities affected by the conflict. According to Ukrainian information, the ICRC should guarantee the ceasefire for the evacuations actually planned for this Saturday.
Had the plan worked, Ukraine estimates that 200,000 civilians could have left Mariupol and another 15,000 from the city of Volnowakha. This way people could have gotten to safety from the Russian attacks. Representatives of Russia and Ukraine recently agreed to set up so-called humanitarian corridors. Accordingly, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced a ceasefire on Saturday morning. In a period of seven hours, power lines could have been repaired and relief supplies transported to the two Ukrainian cities.
But the establishment of the humanitarian corridor, which should have led a little more than 220 kilometers from Mariupol in a southwesterly direction to Zaporizhia, did not happen, and the evacuation was postponed. According to the Russian news agency Ria, citing the Ministry of Defense in Moscow, no Ukrainians have used the humanitarian corridors near Mariupol and Volnovakha. The Ministry of Defense also announced that the agreed humanitarian corridor had been fired upon. Shots were also fired from Mariupol in the Donetsk region in south-eastern Ukraine at positions of Russian troops. Separatists in the Donetsk region accuse Ukraine of preparing “provocations” by “Ukrainian nationalists”.
Conversely, the city of Mariupol declared on the Telegram news channel that the Russian side is not adhering to the ceasefire. “For security reasons, the evacuation is therefore postponed.” It is difficult to understand which side has not kept to the agreement.
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has called on Ukraine to observe a ceasefire around the port city of Mariupol and the city of Volnovakha. “We are counting on this agreement being clearly implemented, our military has done its job,” Lavrov said in Moscow on Saturday, according to the Interfax agency. “The most important thing is that people get out of the towns and villages through humanitarian corridors.”
Humanitarian corridors harbor risks
The establishment of humanitarian corridors entails further risks – beyond the difficult coordination between the warring parties. When people leave their homes, the attackers from the Russian side have a free hand. Be it to establish themselves in the affected areas, be it to destroy them without having to kill people. Likewise, in the event of a humanitarian corridor along the evacuation zone, the Russian army could rearm. If such a temporary ceasefire lasts longer, there is the possibility of “regrouping forces or replenishing forces” and organizing supplies without a relative threat to the other side, former NATO general Egon Ramms explained in the ARD morning magazine. Then this would be a pause to catch your breath, which also allows you to prepare for certain military operations.
For the time being, however, that will not happen. But neither will thousands of Ukrainians be able to get to safety. Mayor Vadym Bojchenko had already announced on Wednesday that Mariupol was without water, heating and electricity. So far, nothing is known about a new timetable for the establishment of the corridor. From Mariupol it was only said that negotiations would continue on a ceasefire and the question of how a “safe humanitarian corridor” could be guaranteed.