People fleeing beleaguered Ukrainian cities along safe corridors began evacuating on Tuesday, with UN officials reporting that the number of refugees escaping Russia’s assault had surpassed 2 million.
During the biggest land conflict in Europe since World War II, the Russian invasion has imprisoned civilians within cities that are running out of food, water, and medication.
Attempts to bring residents to safety in the past have failed due to continued attacks. However, video released by Ukrainian officials on Tuesday showed buses carrying passengers traveling down a snowy route from the eastern city of Sumy and yellow buses bearing a Red Cross heading toward the southern port of Mariupol.
There was no way of knowing how long the attempts would persist.
“A green corridor has been established in the Ukrainian city of Sumy, and the first step of evacuation has begun,” the Ukrainian official communications office tweeted.
Many people have chosen to leave Ukraine rather than flee to other cities in Ukraine. According to Safa Msehli, a representative for the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration, 2 million people have gone, including at least 100,000 non-Ukrainians.
“We can’t even gather the dead since the heavy weapon bombardment doesn’t stop at all hours of the day or night,” Mayor Anatol Fedoruk stated. “On city streets, dogs are ripping bodies apart. It’s a shamble.”
An estimated 200,000 people — about half of Mariupol’s population of 430,000 — intended to evacuate one of the neediest cities, Mariupol.
A cease-fire was agreed to start Tuesday morning, according to Russia’s coordination center for humanitarian activities in Ukraine and Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk, but it was unclear where all the corridors would lead due to disagreements between the two sides.
There may be more than one corridor, according to Russia’s coordinating center, but the majority will lead to Russia, either directly or via Belarus. The Russian envoy to the United Nations, on the other hand, advised that corridors be established from numerous cities, with people being able to select which direction they wanted to go.
Meanwhile, Vereshchuk simply stated that the two sides had agreed to a civilian evacuation from the eastern city of Sumy to Poltava, Ukraine. Foreign students from India and China are among those who will be evacuated, she said.
She said that Russian suggestions to evacuate residents to Russia and its ally Belarus, which served as the invasion’s launch pad, were unacceptable.
Later, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, a Ukrainian presidential adviser, uploaded a video of yellow buses with a red cross on the side, which he claimed were being utilized for Mariupol evacuations.
30 buses with humanitarian goods, including water, essential food staples, and medicines, were delivered from Zaporizhzhia to Mariupol, according to Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk, and would be used to transport citizens out.
The need for efficient routes has increased as Russian forces have increased their shelling. The constant shelling, which has hit some of Ukraine’s most densely inhabited areas, has resulted in a humanitarian crisis, with food, water, and medical supplies running out.
Throughout it all, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky praised the country’s military for their “exceptional bravery.”
“The issue is that for every Ukrainian soldier, we have ten Russian soldiers, and for every Ukrainian tank, we have 50 Russian tanks,” Zelensky told ABC News in a Monday night interview. He did say, though, that the strength difference was shrinking and that even if Russian forces “came into all our cities,” they will face an insurrection.
Multiple countries are debating whether to deliver the jets that Zelensky has been appealing for, according to a top US official.
Mariupol, which is under siege, is running out of water, food, and electricity, and cellular networks are down. Residents have ransacked stores in their pursuit of basic necessities. Police marched across the city, telling residents to stay in shelters until formal evacuation messages were blasted over loudspeakers.
Antibiotics and medicines are in low supply in Mariupol hospitals, and doctors had to perform several emergency procedures without them.
Due to the lack of phone coverage, concerned citizens approached strangers to inquire if they had family in other parts of the city and if they were safe.
The struggle for Mariupol is vital because its control might allow Moscow to provide a land corridor to Crimea, which it annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
According to Ukraine’s military, Russian soldiers continued their advance in Mykolaiv, several hundred kilometers (miles) west of Mariupol, beginning fire on a half-million-person Black Sea shipbuilding center. Rescuers reported they were putting out fires in residential areas triggered by missile attacks.
Ukrainian soldiers are continuing defense operations in the city’s suburbs, according to the general staff of the armed forces of Ukraine.
According to the general staff, “demoralized” Russian forces are looting in seized areas, commandeering civilian buildings such as farm hangars for military equipment, and taking up shooting positions in populated areas. The assertions could not be verified independently.
According to the general staff, Ukrainian defense troops were also involved in operations in the northern city of Chernihiv and the suburbs of Kyiv.
Hundreds of checkpoints have been established in Kyiv by military and volunteers to protect the city of almost 4 million people, typically using sandbags, stacked tires, and spiked wires. Some barricades appeared to be substantial, with huge concrete slabs and sandbags heaped two stories high, while others appeared to be more haphazard, with hundreds of books used to weigh down piles of tires.
“We will fight to the death if necessary in every house, every street, every checkpoint,” Mayor Vitali Klitschko vowed.
Heavy shelling blasted into residential complexes in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest metropolis with 1.4 million residents.
“I believe it hit the fourth story under us,” Dmitry Sidorenko stated from his hospital bed in Kharkiv. “Everything started burning and falling apart right away.” He crawled out through the third story, through the bodies of some of his neighbors, when the floor collapsed beneath him.
Rescuers and civilians dug through the ruins in Horenka, where shelling reduced one part to ashes and pieces of glass, as hens pecked around them.
“What are they up to?” says the narrator. Vasyl Oksak, a rescue worker, had a question for the Russian invaders. “There were two small children and two old adults residing in this house.” Come in and see what they’ve accomplished.”
Ukraine asked the International Court of Justice in The Hague to put a stop to Russia’s invasion, claiming that Moscow is committing extensive war crimes.
According to Jonathan Gimblett, a member of Ukraine’s legal team, Russia is “resorting to tactics reminiscent of medieval siege warfare, encircling cities, blocking off escape routes, and hitting the civilian population with heavy weaponry.”
The war has caused global energy prices to skyrocket and stockpiles to collapse, endangering the food supply and livelihoods of people who rely on crops grown in the rich Black Sea region.
The United Nations Human Rights Office reported 406 confirmed civilian casualties, but the true figure is substantially higher, according to the UN.
On Monday, Moscow reiterated its demands for an end to the invasion, including recognition of Crimea as part of Russia and independence for the eastern territories controlled by Moscow-backed separatist forces. It also demanded that Ukraine amend its constitution to ensure that it does not join multinational organizations such as NATO and the EU. Those requests have previously been rejected by Ukraine.
More punitive actions against Russia are being advocated by Zelensky, including a global boycott of the country’s oil exports, which are vital to its economy.
In a video speech, he stated, “If (Russia) doesn’t want to follow civilized laws, then they shouldn’t receive goods and services from civilization.”
