Ukraine, Russia fail to agree on evacuation convoys: Deputy PM

'We have not been able to agree about ceasefires on evacuation routes'

By Reuters

Published: Sun 17 Apr 2022, 12:46 PM

Ukraine and Russia have failed to agree on Sunday about humanitarian convoys for the evacuation of civilians from war-affected areas, Ukraine’s deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said on Sunday.

“We have not been able to agree ... about ceasefires on evacuation routes. That is why, unfortunately, we are not opening humanitarian corridors today,” she said on her Telegram account.

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Vereshchuk also said that the Ukrainian authorities have asked for humanitarian corridors for the evacuation of civilians and wounded Ukrainian troops from the besieged port of Mariupol.

“Once again, we demand the opening of a humanitarian corridor for the evacuation of civilians, especially women and children, from Mariupol,” she wrote.

Ukrainian authorities have urged people in the eastern Donbas area to move west to escape a large-scale Russian offensive to capture its composite regions, Donetsk and Lugansk.

They have also recently accused Russian forces of targeting evacuation infrastructure, including buses and a train station in Kramatorsk where more than 50 people were reported killed in Russian strikes.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said this week that if Russian forces kill Kyiv’s troops remaining to defend the city, then a fledgling negotiation process to end nearly two months of fighting would be ended.