Ukraine hopes to send 90 buses to Mariupol, the strategically important port city in southeastern Ukraine besieged by Russian forces, to evacuate some 6,000 women, children and the elderly today, the mayor said on state television. city.
Vadim Boichenko, who has left Mariupol, expressed the hope that the preliminary agreement reached with Russia on the opening of a humanitarian corridor from this city today will be finalized and observed.
He also noted that about 100,000 civilians are still in Mariupol and that tens of thousands of people have lost their lives during the siege of this city in the Sea of Azov by Russian forces.
Earlier in the day, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Irina Verestsuk announced that Ukraine had reached a preliminary agreement with Russia to open a humanitarian corridor to evacuate women, children and the elderly from Mariupol.
“We have reached a preliminary agreement on a humanitarian corridor for women, children and the elderly,” Verestsuk said in a Facebook post.
“Given the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Mariupol, that is where we will focus our efforts today,” she said.
Efforts to evacuate civilians from Mariupol will begin at 14:00 Ukrainian time (and Greek time) and the humanitarian corridor will open to Zaporizhia in southern Ukraine, according to Verestsuk
“Given the very difficult situation, changes may occur during the operation of the corridor. Therefore, please follow the relevant official messages,” she explains in her post.
No humanitarian corridor has been opened in Ukraine since Saturday, in the absence of an agreement with the Russians, who have stepped up their strikes in eastern Ukraine in recent days.
A total of 300,000 Ukrainians have been evacuated through humanitarian corridors since the start of the war on February 24, according to a number released by the Ukrainian Ministry of Reintegration on Tuesday night.
“Since the beginning of the war, the Ukrainian government has proposed more than 340 humanitarian corridors. The (Russian) occupying forces have accepted about 300 and de facto 176 have actually worked,” the ministry said in a statement, accusing the Russians of violated the truce or blocked evacuation vehicles several times, something Russia denies.
Source: ΑΠΕ-ΜΠΕ
Source: Capital

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