Status: 03/08/2022 3:27 p.m
There are very different reports coming from the Ukraine: While the first civilians have apparently been evacuated from Sumy in the north-east, the Red Cross describes the situation in Mariupol in the south-east as “apocalyptic”.
In Ukraine there are renewed attempts to bring civilians from the cities that were particularly heavily shelled by Russia to safety. However, these are obviously successful to varying degrees.
According to the authorities, the first evacuations actually began in the morning in the city of Sumy in northeastern Ukraine. Residents boarded buses to take them to Poltava. The city is about 170 kilometers to the south and has so far been spared direct fighting.
Sumy Governor Dmitro Zhivitsky said priority would be given to the disabled, pregnant women and children from orphanages. In a video released by Presidential Advisor Kyrolo Tymoshenko, a red bus was seen with some civilians on board. “The local population will follow the convoy in private vehicles,” announced Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk in a TV speech.
Cease fire to last until evening
Sumy, a town of about 250,000 near the border with Russia, has been the scene of fierce fighting for several days. There had been an air raid there during the night, in which at least 21 people are said to have died.
According to Vereshchuk, in a letter to the Red Cross, Russia had announced a “humanitarian corridor” for the evacuation of civilians from Sumy. A ceasefire should apply on Tuesday between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. (local time, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. CET).
According to Russian information, the ceasefire should also apply to four other cities: the greater Kyiv area with the embattled suburb of Irpin and the major cities of Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Mariupol. There are no reports that evacuations are in progress here either.
Ukraine: Russia shells escape route
The situation in Mariupol, the strategically important port city on the Azov Sea, is apparently particularly dramatic. The ceasefire promised by Russia was broken, according to Ukrainian sources. “Ceasefire violated! Russian forces are now shelling the humanitarian corridor from Zaporizhia to Mariupol,” Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleh Nikolenko wrote on Twitter at noon.
Eight trucks and 30 buses are ready to deliver humanitarian aid to Mariupol and bring civilians to Zaporizhia. The pressure on Russia must be increased in order for it to meet its obligations, Nikolenko continued. The Russian side initially gave no information on this. In the morning, the spokesman for the pro-Russian forces in the Donetsk region, Eduard Bassurin, claimed that Ukrainian “nationalists” were blocking the evacuation.
conflicting parties as a source
Information on the course of the war, shelling and casualties provided by official bodies of the Russian and Ukrainian conflict parties cannot be directly checked by an independent body in the current situation.
“The situation is apocalyptic”
Since last Saturday, several attempts to bring people from the city of 440,000 to safety have failed. According to humanitarian aid workers, the situation for the people in the port city is catastrophic. “The situation is apocalyptic,” said spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Geneva, Ewan Watson. In Mariupol, all supplies ran out. The ICRC has delivered all stocks and is trying to bring supplies into the country in all possible ways
The ICRC stands ready to facilitate the evacuation of civilians who want to leave the city, the spokesman said. However, Russia and Ukraine have not yet created the conditions for this. “We’re trying desperately to facilitate dialogue,” Watson said. The prerequisite for an evacuation is that people travel voluntarily and that they are taken to a safe place. Watson declined to answer the question of whether Russia should be considered a safe place.
Ukraine rejects escape corridors to Russia
Recently, Russia had repeatedly offered escape corridors that would take people to Russia or Belarus – but not to other regions of Ukraine. The Ukrainian government had rejected such escape corridors, on the grounds that the Kremlin’s only concern was to create “the desired TV images.” “These are citizens of Ukraine, they should have the right to be evacuated to Ukrainian territory,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s spokesman said in a written statement.
Russia attacked neighboring Ukraine on February 24 after the Kremlin repeatedly denied planning such an attack. According to the UN, more than 400 civilians have been killed so far. The number of people fleeing is in the millions. The UN now puts the number of those who have left Ukraine to the west at more than two million. It is unclear how many Ukrainians are fleeing within their own country.