Ukraine-Russia war: Russia announces ceasefire, opening of evacuation corridors

Moscow's UN Ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, said a ceasefire would be declared on Tuesday at 10 am Moscow time, and humanitarian corridors will be opened to evacuate citizens from Ukraine's conflict-torn cities of Kyiv, Chernihiv, Sumy, and Mariupol. He stated that the evacuation plan would be subject to Ukraine's approval.

Nebenzia made the announcement at the end of a UN Security Council meeting on the east European country's humanitarian crisis on Monday.

The proposal makes no demands regarding citizens being sent to Russia or into Russian territory, Nebenzia said. 

Nebenzia explained there is also evacuation offered towards Ukrainian cities west of Kyiv, and ultimately it will be the people's wish where they want to be evacuated. 

Concerning the possibility of evacuating Ukrainian citizens to Russia, he stated that officials had ignored the fact that there were already Ukrainian refugees in the country.

His remarks came as a senior UN official informed the Security Council that the organisation requires a secure route to deliver humanitarian aid to war zones in Ukraine.

While urging all sides to ensure that civilians, homes and infrastructure in Ukraine were safeguarded, Martin Griffiths, the undersecretary-general for the humanitarian affairs, said that the civilians in Mariupol, Kharkiv, Melitopol and elsewhere are in desperate need of help, especially life-saving medical supplies.

Nebenzia previously stated that the issues of people evacuation from other regions and the provision of humanitarian relief are being politicised. In particular, the Ukrainian side's requests were made known to them less than three hours before opening humanitarian corridors. 

According to the Russian diplomat, more than 1,68,000 people have been safely evacuated to Russia from the area of special military action, and 5,550 people have crossed the border in the last 24 hours. He added that they are also putting temporary housing for citizens arriving from Ukraine.
 

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• Ceasefire plan
• Human aid
• Russia
• Ukraine
• Ukraine cities
• Ukraine-Russia crisis
• Ukraine-Russia war