As of: 03/09/2022 3:56 p.m
Extensive evacuation measures are under way in Ukraine. Thousands of people try to escape from the besieged cities. But the ceasefire seems fragile: there are reports of exchanges of fire in many places.
The evacuation of civilians from besieged cities in Ukraine continues to be slow. Again there were incidents in many places. In the village of Demydiv, around 25 kilometers north of the capital Kyiv, Russian troops fired on Ukrainian police officers, according to the security forces. One police officer was killed and one seriously injured, officials said. A civilian was also taken to hospital with serious injuries. The information could not be verified.
Thousands of civilians fled
Thousands of people fled the previously spared Black Sea metropolis of Odessa in overcrowded trains. Evacuations also started in other regions. President Volodymyr Zelenskyj announced that around 18,000 people were currently being evacuated from the capital Kyiv and the embattled cities in the vicinity. Ukrainian media published pictures from Irpin near Kyiv showing old and sick people being carried to safety on stretchers and hand trucks. A children’s home was evacuated in Worsel near the capital.
Buses arrived in the city of Sumy in the north-east of the country at noon. According to the deputy head of the presidential office, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the first vehicles with civilians left Enerhodar in southern Ukraine and Izyum near Kharkiv in the north-east.
Six escape corridors are to enable evacuation
After civilians were brought to safety for the first time via an escape corridor from the fiercely contested city of Sumy in north-eastern Ukraine on Tuesday, Kyiv and Moscow announced the establishment of several further escape corridors. As Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk announced, a twelve-hour ceasefire should apply to six evacuation routes.
Several attempts to create safe escape routes had previously failed. Moscow and Kyiv blamed each other for this. Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova again accused the Ukrainian government of obstructing efforts to evacuate civilians.
Kuleba: “Russia is holding 400,000 people hostage”
In Mariupol in particular, according to the separatists in the Donetsk region, the agreed escape corridor is still not working. “People are leaving Mariupol on their own as soon as possible,” spokesman for the pro-Russian forces, Eduard Bassurin, told Russian state television. According to him, only 42 people were able to leave the city on the Azov Sea on Tuesday.
Ukraine blamed the attackers. Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted: “Russia continues to hold more than 400,000 people hostage in Mariupol, blocking humanitarian aid and evacuation.” The indiscriminate shelling continues. An attempt to evacuate civilians and bring urgently needed medicine, food and water to Mariupol failed on Tuesday.
conflicting parties as a source
In the current situation, 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.
Catastrophic conditions in Mariupol and other places
According to aid organizations, tens of thousands of civilians have been stuck in “catastrophic” circumstances in Mariupol, which has been surrounded for days. Many people are without running water, heating, sewerage and telephone connections. Some broke into stores in search of food, others melted snow for water. “There is nothing, no household items. The water is collected from the roofs after the rain,” said the head of the Mariupol Red Cross Alexei Berntsev.
The situation in the port city is catastrophic, the Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister also reported. Thousands crowded into basements that shook under the impact of Russian shells. They waited for news about evacuation possibilities. Because of the power outages, many were only able to receive news through their car radios. Obtaining and passing on news has become one of the most important tasks of his organization, said Bernzew. “Sometimes information is more important to people than food.”
According to the World Congress of Ukrainians, the humanitarian situation in other Ukrainian cities is also devastating. There is a food emergency in the larger cities, which are currently under most attack, said the head of the World Congress’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Initiatives, Andrij Waskowycz. In many places, food deliveries are too dangerous. The mayor of Chernihiv, a major city on the Desna River and a major base of the Ukrainian army, said two-thirds of households were without electricity and water.
Situation in Ukraine: Kyiv is preparing for the worst
Jan Koch, WDR, daily topics 10:40 p.m., March 9, 2022
Low expectations for meetings in Antalya
The foreign ministers of Russia and Ukraine, Sergei Lavrov and Dmytro Kuleba, are scheduled to hold talks in Antalya, Turkey, on Thursday. The Russian leadership spoke of “progress” in resolving the conflict.
Kuleba said he didn’t have high expectations for the planned meeting. “But we will undoubtedly apply maximum pressure,” he emphasized in a video clip published on Facebook. “Our interest is the cessation of fire, the liberation of our territories and, thirdly, the unconditional resolution of all humanitarian problems, the disasters created by the Russian army.” Kuleba said he hoped that Lavrov actually wanted to find a solution on how to end the war – “and not for propaganda reasons”.