Buses filled with refugees have begun leaving the besieged eastern Ukrainian city of Sumy in the first evacuation through a humanitarian corridor agreed with Russia after several failed attempts in recent days to allow civilians to escape the violence of Moscow’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
Live Briefing: Russia Invades Ukraine
Check out RFE/RL’s live briefing on Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine and how Kyiv is fighting and the West is reacting. The briefing presents the latest developments and analysis, updated throughout the day.
Regional Governor Dmitro Zhivitskiy said in a video statement on March 8 that the first buses had already departed Sumy, located just 50 kilometers from the Russian border, for the central Ukrainian city of Poltava, some 175 kilometers further south.
However, another humanitarian corridor agreed for the southern city of Mariupol came under attack from Russian forces, according to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry.
“The enemy has launched an attack heading exactly at the humanitarian corridor,” the ministry said on Facebook, adding the Russian Army “did not let children, women, and elderly people leave the city.”
As the fighting raged in many areas across the country for a 13th day since the February 24 invasion was launched, residents were also leaving the town of Irpin, a frontline Kyiv suburb, saying shelling overnight was some of the most intense so far.
Sumy also has been subjected to intensive Russian bombardment. At least 21 people, including two children, died in a Russian air strike on the city, local authorities said on March 8. At least four Ukrainian soldiers were also killed, the military said.
The evacuation began after Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said earlier on March 8 that both sides had agreed to a cease-fire from 9 a.m.-9 p.m. for the evacuation of Sumy.
“The Ukrainian city of Sumy was given a green corridor, the first stage of evacuation began,” the Ukrainian state communications agency tweeted.
WATCH: Thousands of people are trying to flee the Ukrainian city of Irpin for the capital, Kyiv, almost 25 kilometers away. Ukrainian forces have blown up bridges near the city to stop advancing Russian tanks. Current Time filmed local residents trying to escape Russian shelling and flee in any way possible.
According to the United Nations, the Russian invasion has forced more than 2 million people to flee Ukraine.
Many others remain trapped inside besieged cities that are running low on food, water, and medicine amid the biggest ground war in Europe since World War II.
The destination of the other corridors was not immediately clear, and it was uncertain whether Ukraine would agree to use them if they took Ukrainians to Russia or its close ally, Belarus.
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.
WATCH: RFE/RL has acquired drone footage said to be of Russian truck-mounted Grad rockets being launched in Ukraine’s Kyiv region on March 5. The footage is understood to have been shot by volunteers assisting the Ukrainian military. The group would not give a more specific location for security reasons.
The announcements came after a third round of talks between Ukrainian and Russian delegations were held on March 7 in neighboring Belarus.
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 early on March 8 that 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.
In addition, the Ukrainian Red Cross has distributed hygiene and food kits, warm clothing, and medicine to thousands of people.
The United Nations refugee chief said on March 8 the number of people fleeing Russia’s advance into Ukraine has reached 2 million.
Filippo Grandi, the UN’s high commissioner for refugees, made his remarks at a press conference in Oslo after visiting Moldova, Poland, and Romania, all of which have received refugees pouring across the border from Ukraine since Russia invaded the country on February 24.
Grandi said that, by comparison, the Balkan wars in Bosnia and Kosovo saw “maybe 2 to 3 million people, but over a period of eight years.”
While other parts of the “world have seen this,” Grandi added, “in Europe it’s the first time since the Second World War.”
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.
At the United Nations, Griffiths told a Security Council meeting on March 7 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.”
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.
The commander of Ukraine’s armed forces, General Valery Zaluzhny, said Ukrainian forces had shot down a Russian jet over Kyiv and that a second Russian plane was shot down in an air battle near the city.
