The establishment of humanitarian corridors fails again. The Ukrainian army warns of an imminent attack on Kyiv.
In the small town of Irpin near Kyiv, people are taking shelter in basements and shelters.
There are still no safe escape routes for civilians from most of the besieged cities in Ukraine. After two unsuccessful attempts over the weekend to set up an escape corridor for the residents of the particularly hard-fought city of Mariupol, a new attempt was to be made on Monday.
Evacuation only to Russian territory
Russia announced a two-hour ceasefire in Mariupol, Kyiv, Kharkiv and Sumi. The Ukrainian side called the conditions specified by Russia unacceptable, since the fleeing civilians should have put themselves into Russian hands. Almost all of the proposed escape routes led to Russia, Belarus or Russian-controlled territory in Ukraine.
In previous attempts, too, the parties to the conflict had not been able to agree on the necessary details for setting up so-called humanitarian corridors. Dominik Stillhart, the International Committee of the Red Cross’s chief operations officer, told the BBC on Monday that a designated escape route from the city of Mariupol had turned out to be mined.
Even without so-called humanitarian corridors, civilians are fleeing embattled cities. According to the mayor of the small town of Irpin in northwestern Kyiv, more than 1,000 people were evacuated to the Ukrainian capital on Monday. A family was killed by a Russian grenade on the street at the weekend.
However, the situation in Kyiv is likely to deteriorate further in the near future. Russian troops are already regularly shelling the capital. The Ukrainian military said on Monday that they now expect the expected large-scale Russian attack at any time. According to a spokesman for the presidential office in Kyiv, Hostomel and other long-fought locations around the capital are under Russian control.
Kuleba-Lavrov meeting announced
At the same time, diplomatic efforts will continue. The third round of talks between Russia and Ukraine took place on Monday afternoon in the Polish-Belarusian border area. As the head of the Ukrainian delegation, Mikhail Podoljak, reported on Twitter, the three-hour meeting produced small advances in the establishment of humanitarian corridors. However, the talks did not lead to a significant improvement in the situation. According to the head of the Russian delegation, Vladimir Medinski, it is too early to talk about positive developments.
As was announced on Monday, for the first time since the outbreak of the war, talks at government level between the warring parties are to take place this week. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that a meeting between Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitro Kuleba and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov is planned on the sidelines of a diplomatic conference in Antalya on Thursday.
Nothing is known about the talking points. However, the Russian side again showed no willingness to compromise. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday that the “military operation” would be halted as soon as Ukraine met Russia’s demands. These include the recognition of the separatist areas in the Donbass as independent states and the constitutional ban on joining an international alliance.
Moscow boycotts hearing at International Court of Justice
The first hearing in the Ukraine v. Russia case was held at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague on Monday. Ukraine had appealed to the UN’s most important court to comment on the Russian accusation that Kyiv was committing genocide in the Donbass. President Putin used it to justify his attack on Ukraine. Russia and Ukraine have ratified the Genocide Convention, which gives the ICJ jurisdiction over these issues.
Kyiv wants to use the lawsuit to obtain a court order for Russia to immediately stop hostilities. In principle, rulings by the ICJ are binding. However, the Court has no means of coercion to implement them. It can only appeal to the Security Council, where Russia has the right of veto. Moscow made it clear that it did not attach importance to the negotiations in The Hague and announced that it would not attend the hearing.
Russian list of “hostile states”
The Russian government on Monday published a list of mostly Western states that “carry out hostile acts towards Russia”. Russian citizens and companies that have debts to creditors from these countries can in future service them in rubles. Switzerland and all EU countries are also on this list.
The Russian currency lost 17 percent of its value on Monday. At the same time, oil and gas prices continued to soar. The reason for this are American efforts to ban the import of Russian energy sources. The German Chancellor Olaf Scholz again spoke out against such a step because of Germany’s high dependence on Russian energy imports. However, the EU announced further sanctions that should come into force in the next few days.