LAST UPDATE | 7 Mar 2022

UKRAINE HAS REJECTED Moscow’s offer of humanitarian corridors to Russia and Belarus.

“This is not an acceptable option,” Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said, after Russia proposed safe passage for civilians from Kharkiv, Kyiv, Mariupol and Sumy.

The civilians “aren’t going to go to Belarus and then take a plane to Russia”.

The Russian army said earlier today it was opening humanitarian corridors from the four Ukrainian cities.

Russian army spokesman Igor Konashenkov said local ceasefires had begun at 7am GMT to allow civilians to escape.

Fighting was still ongoing today in the four – the capital Kyiv, the second city Kharkhiv in the east, the southeastern port of Mariupol on the Sea of Azov and Sumy, near the eastern border with Russia.

But the fact the corridors led into Russia or its ally Belarus raised questions over the safety of those who might use them.

Two recent attempts to allow thousands of civilians to leave the besieged city of Mariupol have ended in disaster, with civilians under fire and both sides accusing each other of violations.

Moscow said the decision to open the corridors was taken after a “personal request” by French President Emmanuel Macron to Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

People cross on an improvised path under a bridge that was destroyed by a Russian airstrike, while fleeing the town of Irpin. Oleksandr Ratushniak Oleksandr Ratushniak

The pair spoke yesterday in their fourth conversation since Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February.

Moscow said it had informed the UN, the OSCE and other international organisations of the corridors and called on Ukraine to “strictly fulfil all the conditions” of the evacuations.

“We expect concrete actions from the official Kyiv authorities, as well as from the leadership of the above cities mentioned,” it said.

The Russian army pummelled Ukrainian cities from the air, land and sea today, with warnings they were preparing for an assault on the capital Kyiv.

The relentless fire has pushed more than 1.5 million people across Ukraine’s borders as refugees, though many others are displaced internally or trapped in cities being reduced to rubble by Russian bombardment.

Putin has vowed to “neutralise” Ukraine “either through negotiation or through war”, and expectations remain low for a third round of Russian-Ukrainian talks set for today.

© – AFP, 2022