LVIV/IRPIN: Moscow said on Monday it would let residents of Ukraine’s two main cities flee in corridors to Russia and Belarus, a move Ukraine called an immoral stunt to weaponize the suffering of civilians under Russian bombardment.
Both sides said a third round of talks was due at an undisclosed location in Belarus on Monday. Two previous rounds yielded little beyond pledges to open routes for humanitarian access that have yet to be successfully implemented.
Russia’s announcement of “humanitarian corridors” came after two days of failed cease-fires to allow civilians to escape the besieged city of Mariupol, where hundreds of thousands are trapped without food and water, under relentless bombardment.
According to maps published by the RIA news agency, the corridor from Kyiv would lead to Russia’s ally Belarus, while civilians from Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second biggest city, would be directed to Russia.
“Attempts by the Ukrainian side to deceive Russia and the whole civilized world … are useless this time,” the ministry said.
A spokesperson for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called the move “completely immoral” saying Russia was trying to “use people’s suffering to create a television picture.”
“They are citizens of Ukraine, they should have the right to evacuate to the territory of Ukraine,” the spokesperson told Reuters.
Russia’s invasion has been condemned around the world, sent more than 1.5 million Ukrainians fleeing abroad, and triggered sweeping sanctions that have abruptly isolated Russia to a degree never before experienced by such a large economy.
Global share prices plunged on Monday after Washington said it was considering extending its sanctions to Russia’s energy exports, until now carved out from trade bans.
Russia is the world’s biggest exporter of oil and gas. Brent crude prices surged above $139 a barrel on Monday, the closest they have come in 14 years to the all-time high of $147. Investment banks say prices could approach $200 this year if Russian supply evaporates, with dire consequences for the global economy.
Both Russia and Ukraine are also among the world’s main exporters of grain, edible oils and industrial metals. The war threatens to send global food prices skyrocketing and complicate industries’ recovery from the pandemic crisis.
Russia denies deliberately targeting civilians. It calls the campaign it launched on Feb. 24 a “special military operation” to disarm Ukraine and remove leaders it describes as neo-Nazis. Ukraine and its Western allies call this a transparent pretext for an invasion to conquer a nation of 44 million people.
The general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said Russian forces were “beginning to accumulate resources for the storming of Kyiv,” a city of more than 3 million, after days of slow progress in their main advance south from Belarus.
“No peaceful place on this earth”
Ukraine said 2,000 civilians had been evacuated from Irpin, a Kyiv suburb under heavy attack. Reuters journalists in the town on Sunday witnessed residents running for their lives, carrying small children, pets and bags of belongings. Families dove for cover as explosions burst in the town and flames shot up into the sky. Panting with exhaustion and shock, they were helped onto busses by Ukrainian troops.
In a speech to the nation late on Sunday, Zelenskiy described one family cut down there as they tried to escape, and said Russians responsible for such atrocities would never be forgiven: “For you there will be no peaceful place on this earth, except for the grave.”
Ukraine said on Monday its forces had retaken control of the town of Chuhuiv in the northeast, site of heavy fighting for days, and of the strategic Mykolayiv airport in the south. Neither claim could immediately be verified.
The United Nations called for safe passage to reach people cut off from lifesaving aid across Ukraine. In a humanitarian update it described one psychiatric hospital 60 km (37.3 miles)from Kyiv, running out of water and medicine with 670 people trapped inside, including bedridden patients with severe needs.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Reuters on Monday Moscow would halt operations if Ukraine ceased fighting, amended its constitution to declare neutrality, and recognized Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the independence of regions held by Russian-backed separatists.
While Russia’s advance in the north on Kyiv has been stalled for days with an armored column stretching for miles along a highway, it has made more progress in the south, pushing east and west along the Black and Azov Sea coasts.
In the port of Mariupol, residents are sleeping underground to escape a week of shelling by Russian forces that has cut off food, water, power and heat.
About half were due to be evacuated on Sunday, but that effort was aborted for a second day when a cease-fire collapsed, with both sides accusing each other of shooting and shelling.
Moscow has acknowledged nearly 500 deaths among its soldiers, but Western countries say the true number is much higher and Ukraine says it is many thousands. Death tolls cannot be verified, but footage widely filmed across Ukraine shows burnt-out wreckage of Russian armored columns and Ukrainian cities reduced to rubble by Russian strikes.
In Russia itself, the authorities have imposed a near total blackout on non-official information. The last significant independent broadcasters of the post-Soviet era were shut last week, and a new law threatens long jail terms for reporting deemed by the authorities to discredit the military. Many foreign news organizations have suspended reporting from Russia.
