Six humanitarian corridors to try and evacuate civilians: Ukraine

KIev: Ukraine will try to evacuate civilians through six “humanitarian corridors” on Wednesday, including from the besieged southern port city of Mariupol, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk has said. In a video statement, she said Ukrainian Armed forces had agreed to stop firing in those areas for 12 hours from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. […]

KIev: Ukraine will try to evacuate civilians through six “humanitarian corridors” on Wednesday, including from the besieged southern port city of Mariupol, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk has said.

In a video statement, she said Ukrainian Armed forces had agreed to stop firing in those areas for 12 hours from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. local time (7 a.m. until 7 p.m. GMT) — and urged Russian forces to fulfil their commitment to local ceasefires, the BBC reported.

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The news comes as Ukraine managed to carry out its first mass evacuation exercise on Tuesday, carrying an estimated 5,000 civilians from the city of Sumy in north-eastern Ukraine to Poltava, in the centre.

Authorities in Kyiv have previously accused Moscow of shelling a refugee corridor intended for civilians trying to escape the city of Mariupol.

It is also unclear whether the six proposed routes will go — previous offers of routes to Russia or its ally Belarus were rejected by the Ukrainian government.