Filenews 7 March 2022
"Completely immoral," Ukraine called the Russian proposal on humanitarian corridors, after Moscow announced it would allow civilians to flee on condition that they take refuge in Russia or Belarus.
A spokesman for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pointed out that Ukrainian citizens should be able to flee to Ukrainian territory, while accusing Moscow of blocking previous attempts to evacuate Ukrainian cities.
"It's a completely immoral story. People's woes are being used to create the desired television image," the spokesman complained in a written message.
"These are citizens of Ukraine, they should have the right to resort to Ukrainian territory," he added.
The escape routes
Earlier today Monday the Russian army announced that it will today observe a temporary ceasefire from 09:00 (Ukrainian time and Greek time) in order to open humanitarian corridors in the cities of Kiev, Kharkiv, Mariupol and Sumi, at the request of French President Emmanuel Macron.
The Russian military added that it will open a corridor between Kiev and the Belarusian city of Gomel, located near the Ukrainian border.
Two other corridors will start from Mariupol through which civilians will be able to head either to the Russian city of Rostov on the Don, or to the Ukrainian city of Zaporizia.
Moscow clarified that another corridor will start from Kharkiv to the Russian city of Belgorod.
Finally, two corridors will be created to evacuate civilians from Sumi: one towards Belgorod and the other towards Poltava in Ukraine.
Two previous attempts to evacuate civilians from Mariupol and Volnovaha over the weekend failed due to the violation of the ceasefire, with Kiev and Moscow blaming each other.
Russian troops continue their advance
Today, Olekei Arestovic, an adviser to Zelensky, said negotiations are underway with Russia to create the humanitarian corridors, but added that it is difficult to create as Russian troops continue their advance.
Arestovic added that Ukrainians should be able to decide where to go, but advised them not to resort to Russia.
