The Russian army announced on Monday the opening of several humanitarian corridors and the establishment of local ceasefires to evacuate civilians from the Ukrainian cities of Kharkhiv, Kiev, Mariupol and Sumy, plagued by heavy fighting.
• Read also: Mariupol: in the heart of a city that “no longer exists”
• Read also: Faced with Russian “terrorists”, civilians standing in Kherson
• Read also: Fears of racism against Russians
“Russian forces, for humanitarian purposes, declare a ‘regime of silence’ from 10 a.m. on March 7 and the opening of humanitarian corridors,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.
The statement did not specify whether the lanes will open at local time in Ukraine (0800 GMT) or Moscow time (0700 GMT) and how long they will remain open.
The Russian army specifies that this decision was taken after a “personal request” from French President Emmanuel Macron addressed to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. The two leaders spoke for two hours on Sunday by telephone.
This announcement comes as a third round of talks between Kiev and Moscow is due to take place on Monday, according to Kiev.
In recent days, two attempts to evacuate civilians from the besieged port of Mariupol in southeastern Ukraine have failed, with Kiev and Moscow accusing each other of violating the conditions of the evacuation.
The Russian army said on Monday that it would open a corridor between the capital Kiev and the Belarusian city of Gomel, not far from the Ukrainian border.
According to this source, two other corridors will start from Mariupol and will allow either an evacuation in the direction of Russia to the city of Rostov-on-the-Don, or towards the West to the Ukrainian city of Zaporozhye.
Moscow has specified that another corridor will run from Kharkiv to the Russian city of Belgorod.
Finally, two routes should allow civilians to leave the Ukrainian city of Sumy: either to Belgorod in Russia or to Poltava in Ukraine.
Moscow indicates that it has transmitted this information to the structures of the UN, the OSCE and the ICRC.