Kyiv had previously refused
Moscow announces escape routes to Russia
03/10/2022 11:26 p.m
So that civilians can leave Ukraine, Moscow now grants daily escape corridors. However, only to Russia, which the Ukrainian government has always refused to do. Now she should agree within a very short time.
The Russian military has announced the establishment of daily evacuation corridors from Ukraine to Russia. “We officially declare that humanitarian corridors in the direction of the Russian Federation (…) will now be opened unilaterally every day from 10 a.m. (8 a.m. CET),” said Colonel General Mikhail Mizintsev. In addition, Moscow offered the Ukrainian side the evacuation of civilians from Kyiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Mariupol and Chernihiv to other Ukrainian regions, it said.
Kyiv should agree to the relevant routes by 3 a.m. Moscow time (1 a.m. CET) on Friday morning. Russia is also demanding lists of the names of people and vehicles before they attempt to pass through escape corridors. This is reported by the Russian news agency RIA, citing government officials. The Ukrainian government has so far rejected escape routes that lead to Russia and Belarus.
Situation in Mariupol is catastrophic
Moscow also announced that craftsmen from the Zhytomyr region should be granted access to the former Chernobyl nuclear power plant so that they could repair the damaged power lines.
According to observers, the humanitarian situation is now catastrophic, particularly in the port city of Mariupol on the Azov Sea. Several attempts to get people to safety have failed in the past few days. Russia and Ukraine blamed each other for sabotaging civilian exits and breaking agreed ceasefires.
According to Ukrainian sources, at least 60,000 people have been taken out of the cities of Sumy, Trostianets and Krasnopillya in the past two days. Around 20,000 people were evacuated from cities in the Kyiv region on Wednesday.
Russia’s military reported that more than 187,000 people had already been brought to Russia from Ukrainian cities. Moscow had already begun evacuating Russian civilians from Donbass before the invasion of Ukraine began.