Russia agrees to open daily humanitarian corridors amidst war against Ukraine

As the Russian invasion of Ukraine entered the third week on Thursday, Moscow agreed on opening daily humanitarian corridors to evacuate civilians fleeing the country. However, the move was staunchly opposed by Kyiv as Kremlin said that all the corridors would open into Russian territory. Later, the Russian Defence Ministry called on the International Committee of Red Cross and the UN to ensure to inform people about the corridor.

In a statement, the Russian Defense Ministry spokesperson said, “Humanitarian corridors towards the Russian Federation will now be opened, without any agreements, every day from 10:00 am." Mikhail Mizintsev further said that evacuation routes in other directions would proceed "in agreement with the Ukrainian side". Notably, both sides have been negotiating to open three more corridors as the conflict entered its third week.

Meanwhile, Mizintsev noted that more than 2.5 million Ukrainian residents have demanded to be evacuated to the Russian Federation. He also claimed that Moscow had evacuated "more than 187,000" civilians to Russia while accusing Ukrainian troops of hindering the process. As per the Russian diplomat, Ukrainian soldiers were blocking the evacuation of citizens from the seized city of Mariupol. 

Meanwhile, the Volodymyr Zelensky administration said that more than 80,000 people have been evacuated from areas surrounding Kyiv and Sumy over the past two days. “We have evacuated more than 60,000 people in two days” from the northeastern city of Sumy and nearby places, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said in a video posted on the Telegram messaging app. “Some 20,000 people have been evacuated” from areas to the northwest of the capital Kyiv, she added.

Over 2 million refugees

Over 2 million people have left the country while over 549 Ukrainian citizens have lost their lives, according to official UN estimates released on Thursday. However, it said that the death toll is believed to be very high than this. Meanwhile, American officials estimated that nearly 6,000 Russian troops may have died in the battle. While Zelenskyy is continuing to galvanize support from the west, recent satellite images showed that the 40-mile long Russian convoy, which was heading towards Kyiv, had been redeployed. However, experts opine that it would take not more than a week or two for Moscow to take over Kyiv if they continued their invasion.

Image: AP