The Ukrainian Government has rejected the choice of Russia and Belarus as humanitarian corridors for fleeing Ukrainians.
According to the report by AFP, the Russian army announced that it wanted to evacuate civilians present in Kiev, Mariupol, Sumy and Kharkiv, but the Ukrainian government refused the humanitarian corridors to Belarus and Russia proposed by Moscow for the evacuation of civilians from bombed cities, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk announced on Monday.
“It’s not an acceptable option,” she lamented. According to her, the civilians called by the Russians to be evacuated from the cities of Kharkiv, Kiev, Mariupol and Sumy “will not go to Belarus to then take the plane and go to Russia”.
The Russian initiative was also denounced by the Élysée . “It’s another way for Putin to push his narrative and say that it is the Ukrainians who are the aggressors and they are the ones who offer asylum to everyone,” the Presidency of the Republic said on Monday.
Two evacuation attempts from Mariupol were cancelled over the weekend
The Russian army announced earlier in the day the opening of several humanitarian corridors and the establishment of local ceasefires from 8 a.m. to evacuate civilians from the capital Kiev, the country’s second city Kharkhiv, the besieged port of Mariupol and the locality of Sumy, close to the Russian border. These four cities are still in the grip of fierce fighting on Monday.
A humanitarian corridor must in particular be organized, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense, between the capital Kiev and the Belarusian city of Gomel, not far from the Ukrainian border.
During a briefing, Russian army spokesman Igor Konashenkov said local ceasefires to ensure evacuations had started at 8 a.m. Kyiv’s refusal of the corridors proposed by Moscow comes as a third round of talks between Ukraine and Russia is due to take place on Monday, according to Kyiv.
This weekend, two attempts to evacuate civilians from Mariupol , in southeastern Ukraine, failed, with Kiev and Moscow accusing each other of violating the conditions of the evacuation.