Russian attacks halt plans to evacuate Ukrainian civilians
Last edited Sun Mar 6, 2022, 12:35 PM - Edit history (2)
Source: AP
By YURAS KARMANAU
LVIV, Ukraine (AP) — A second attempt to evacuate civilians from a besieged city in southern Ukraine collapsed Sunday as Russian attacks stopped plans to create a humanitarian corridor, a Ukrainian government official said, and Pope Francis called for an end to the “rivers of blood and tears” created by the war.
Food, water, medicine and almost all other supplies were in desperately short supply in the port city of Mariupol, where Russian and Ukrainian forces had agreed to a 11-hour cease-fire to allow civilians and the wounded to be evacuated. But Russian attacks quickly closed the corridor, Ukrainian officials said.
“There can be no ‘green corridors’ because only the sick brain of the Russians decides when to start shooting and at whom,“ Interior Ministry adviser Anton Gerashchenko said on Telegram.
The news dashed hopes that more people could escape the fighting in Ukraine, where Russia’s plan to quickly overrun the country has been stymied by fierce resistance. Russia has made significant advances in southern Ukraine and along the coast, but many of its efforts have become stalled, including an immense military convoy that has been almost motionless for days north of Kyiv.
The dead bodies of people killed by Russian shelling lay covered in the street in the town of Irpin, Ukraine, Sunday, March 6, 2022. With the Kremlin's rhetoric growing fiercer and a reprieve from fighting dissolving, Russian troops continued to shell encircled cities and the number of Ukrainians forced from their country grew to over 1.4 million. (AP Photo/Diego Herrera Carcedo)
Earlier post: Ukraine official says assault halts evacuations for 2nd time
By YURAS KARMANAU
LVIV, Ukraine (AP) -- A Ukrainian official says a second attempt to evacuate civilians from a southern city under siege for a week has failed due to continued Russian shelling.
Evacuations from the port city of Mariupol were scheduled to begin at noon local time (10 a.m. GMT) during a 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. local ceasefire, Ukrainian military authorities said earlier Sunday.
Interior Ministry adviser Anton Gerashchenko said the planned evacuations along designated humanitarian corridors were halted because of an ongoing assault.
"There can be no 'green corridors' because only the sick brain of the Russians decides when to start shooting and at whom," he said on Telegram.
Original story below.
Ukraine civilians race to evacuate under 11-hour cease-fire
By YURAS KARMANAU
LVIV, Ukraine (AP) -- Ukrainian authorities prepared Sunday for a second attempt to evacuate civilians from a southern city pounded by a week-long Russian attack as economic pressure on Moscow intensified and diplomats shuttled around Europe to try to end the war.
Evacuations from the port city of Mariupol were scheduled to begin at noon local time (10 a.m. GMT) during a 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. local ceasefire, Ukrainian military authorities said. A similar cease-fire planned there and in the nearby city of Volnovakha collapsed Saturday, trapping women, children and older under more shelling and aerial bombardment by Russian forces.
The revived announcement came after Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and a Russian-speaking member of his Cabinet traveled to Moscow and spoke with Ukraine's president in hopes of brokering a broader deal to stop the fighting, now in its 11 day.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spent the weekend visiting NATO member nations in Eastern Europe that have seen 1.5 million refugees stream across their borders since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. The head of the U.N. refugee agency called the exodus "the fastest-growing refugee crisis since World War II."
People cross on an improvised path under a bridge that was destroyed by a Russian airstrike, while fleeing the town of Irpin, Ukraine, Saturday, March 5, 2022. What looked like a breakthrough cease-fire to evacuate residents from two cities in Ukraine quickly fell apart Saturday as Ukrainian officials said shelling had halted the work to remove civilians hours after Russia announced the deal. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-vladimir-putin-kyiv-europe-1f3dc134dc6f8c5214cfc723d37fd56a
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