Russia’s U.N. ambassador announced Monday night that the Kremlin would initiate a temporary cease-fire Tuesday morning to allow civilians to leave major Ukrainian cities. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office said the Kremlin would only be believed when safe evacuations began. Prior attempts collapsed due to Russian shelling and, in some cases, routes that led to Russia and its ally Belarus.
Russia’s Interfax news agency quoted the Russian defense ministry as saying Tuesday that Moscow had opened “humanitarian corridors” from Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and four other cities: Sumy, Cherhihiv, Kharkiv and Mariupol, according to the Reuters news agency.
Reuters also quoted Ukrainian officials as saying evacuations had begun from Sumy and Irpin.
On Day 12 of the invasion Monday, Russia’s ground forces were making significant progress in southern Ukraine but seemed stalled north of the capital city of Kyiv and were making limited progress around other major cities. That slow advance has left Moscow to rely on a barrage of artillery in a bid to pummel Ukrainians into submission.
But while the airstrikes take a mounting toll on both Ukrainian lives and infrastructure, they’re also galvanizing international outrage over Russian President Vladimir Putin’s actions. With the significant exception of China, no major economy has supported Putin’s military gambit. The latest round of negotiations happened as the U.S. and its allies were discussing the possibility of a blanket ban on Russian oil and gas products, and of sending fighter jets to Ukraine.
The Kremlin continues to insist publicly, however, that the “operation” in Ukraine — which Russian media are not permitted to call a war or an invasion — will continue until the country is “demilitarized” and its government toppled.
The United Nations says Russia’s invasion has killed hundreds of civilians and driven more than 1.7 million to flee into neighboring nations already, and in many Ukrainian cities, the onslaught continues.
