Russia on March 8 said it has opened humanitarian corridors to allow civilians to evacuate several Ukrainian cities, including Kyiv, amid Ukrainian skepticism following similar pledges by Moscow that only provided for evacuations to Russia and its close ally, Belarus.
The Russian Defense Ministry said the corridors opened from 9 a.m. on March 8 from Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, and the encircled Black Sea port of Mariupol, where an estimated 200,000 people — nearly half the population of 430,000 — were hoping to flee.
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Sumy, located near the Russian border some 350 kilometers east of Kyiv, has been subjected to intensive Russian bombardment. At least nine people, including two children, died in an air strike on the city, the Ukrainian rescue services said on March 8.
Dmytro Zhyvytskyi, head of Sumy’s regional administration, said in statement posted on Facebook early on March 8 that four Ukrainian soldiers were also killed in what he described as “unequal combat with the Russian military.”
Russia is declaring a “regime of silence” for the humanitarian corridors, the ministry said, according to Interfax.
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk on March 8 confirmed that an agreement with Russia on the opening of a humanitarian corridor will allow civilians to start leaving the besieged northeastern Ukrainian city of Sumy.
“It has been agreed that the first convoy will start at 10 a.m. from the city of Sumy. The convoy will be followed by the local population in personal vehicles,” Vereshchuk said in a televised statement.
The routes and final destinations of the corridors were not immediately clear.
The announcements came after a third round of talks between the two sides ended on March 7 with a top Ukrainian official saying there had been minor progress toward establishing safe corridors.
The UN’s humanitarian chief, Martin Griffiths, addressed the Security Council on March 7 and urged safe passage for people to go “in the direction they choose.”
Establishing the corridors has been a point of contention between the two sides, and the failure of earlier attempts has thousands trapped inside cities as they’re bombarded with Russian shelling and artillery.
After talks ended, Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhaylo Podolyak said there had been no results that would improve the situation in general, but he stressed that talks would continue.
Vladimir Medinsky, leader of the Russian delegation, also said talks would continue, but indicated the talks had been difficult.
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Ukraine’s military, meanwhile, said on March 8 that it has managed to slow down the Russian attack, saying that although “the enemy is continuing an offensive operation, the pace of advance of its troops has slowed significantly.”
The General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said that early on March 8, Ukrainian forces were still defending their positions in the southern, eastern, and northern sectors on the country and that Kyiv and the northern city of Chernihiv were still in Ukrainian hands.
The statements could not be independently verified.
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At the UN, Griffiths told a Security Council meeting that his office has sent a team to Moscow to coordinate with the Russian military to try to scale-up the delivery of humanitarian aid.
Griffiths said the UN and its partners have already provided food to hundreds of thousands of people, and the World Food Program “is setting up supply-chain operations to deliver immediate food and cash assistance to 3-5 million people inside Ukraine.”
In addition, the Ukrainian Red Cross has distributed hygiene and food kits, warm clothing, and medicine to thousands of people.
The United Nations estimates that more than 1.7 million Ukrainians, mostly women, children, and the elderly, have fled the violence that erupted following Russia’s invasion on February 24. More than 1.2 million of those refugees have crossed into neighboring Poland, including 141,500 on March 7, the Polish border guard said on March 8.
In Ankara, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba, would meet on March 10 in the resort city of Antalya and that he would also attend the meeting.
The Russian Foreign Ministry confirmed Lavrov’s attendance, adding that the agreement for the three-way meeting was reached during a telephone conversation between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan “on the initiative of the Turkish leader.”
Kuleba confirmed Ankara’s statement and said he was ready for talks with Lavrov.
On March 7, Russian forces opened fire on the city of Mykolayiv, 480 kilometers south of Kyiv. Rescuers said they were putting out fires in residential areas caused by rocket attacks.
Shelling also continued in the suburbs of Kyiv, including Irpin, which has been cut off from electricity, water, and heating for three days. Residents tried to flee Irpin and Bucha, another Kyiv suburb, as they were pounded by air strikes.
The commander of Ukraine’s armed forces, General Valery Zaluzhny, said Ukrainian forces had shot down a Russian jet over Kyiv and a second Russian plane was shot down in an air battle near the city.
Despite ample, concrete evidence of Russian attacks on civilian areas documented by reporters, including RFE/RL correspondents on the ground, Moscow denies targeting civilian areas, calling its campaign a “special military operation.”
