Ukraine rejects Russia’s proposal to open new civilian corridors out of Ukrainian cities

Following the collapse of an earlier ceasefire it had declared on two Ukrainian cities last week, Russia has announced more humanitarian corridors to allow civilians to flee Ukraine into Russia and Belarus starting Monday.

“With the new humanitarian corridors,
Russia’s military is expected to hold fire and open humanitarian corridors in several Ukrainian cities on Monday (7 March),” the Ukrainian Defence Ministry said in a statement

The statement added that incessant shelling of civilian enclaves in the past one week halted evacuation efforts as civilian casualties from Russia’s invasion mounted.

The corridors, according to the statement, will be opened at 10am Moscow time, from the capital Kyiv as well as the cities of Kharkiv, Mariupol and Sumy, and are being set up at the personal request of French President Emmanuel Macron, the ministry said.

The humanitarian corridors from Kyiv will lead to Russian ally, Belarus, and civilians from Kharkiv will only have a corridor leading to Russia, while corridors from Mariupol and Sumy will lead both to other Ukrainian cities and to Russia.

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The statement noted that those who want to leave Kyiv will also be able to be airlifted to Russia, while drones would be used to monitor the evacuation.

However, at a press briefing on Monday, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshchuk, called the proposed evacuation routes to Russia and Belarus “unacceptable.”

“The Ukrainian government is proposing eight humanitarian corridors, including from the southern port of Mariupol, that would allow civilians to travel to the western regions of Ukraine, where there is no Russian shelling.

“Attempts by the Ukrainian side to deceive Russia and the whole civilised world are useless this time,” the PM said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has also rejected the proposed humanitarian corridors, citing earlier breakdown of evacuations which failed as Russian shelling intensified across the country.

“Instead of humanitarian corridors, they can only make bloody ones. Today a family was killed in Irpin. Man, woman and two children. Right on the road. As in a shooting gallery.”

“There can be no ‘green corridors’ because only the sick brain of the Russians decides when to start shooting and at whom,” Ukraine’s Interior Ministry adviser Anton Gerashchenko also said on Telegram.

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