As delegations from Ukraine and Russia prepare for a third attempt at talks in the 12-day war, intensifying fighting has created chaos across the besieged country.
Russian tanks were discovered in the Kyiv suburb of Irpin, where thousands of people are crammed into high-rise apartments vulnerable to Russian missile attacks. As shelling intensified on Monday, elderly men, women and children crowded trains out of the city to head west in an increasingly desperate situation for those still standing. can’t believe their country is being invaded. The United Nations predicts that at least 5 million Ukrainians will be displaced during the war.
As bullets rained down on the port city of Mariupol, which has seen some of the war’s bloodiest clashes to date, a truce intended to allow civilians to escape was once again violated. after neither side laid down their weapons. The director of the International Committee of the Red Cross told the BBC on Monday that even if the ceasefire were respected, the way out was extremely dangerous. Some of his employees were trying to leave town along a designated safe road only to discover it was littered with mines. It is unclear who planted the mines, but both sides blamed the other. “The path indicated to them has really been tapped,” Dominik Stillhart told the BBC on Monday. “That’s why it’s important for both sides to have an exact agreement for us to be able to facilitate it in the field.”
The exits that have been put in place so far have proven to be a hoax as civilians fleeing the fighting were bombed over the weekend.
A spokesman for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told Reuters on Monday that civilians had been given a safe route out of Kharkiv, but only to go directly to Russia or Belarus, which have allied as allies. Russia’s main ally in this war. “They are citizens of Ukraine, they should have the right to evacuate to Ukrainian territory,” he told Reuters, calling Russia’s invitation “completely immoral” accusing Russia of simply doing it for the sake of optics. , to “use people’s suffering to create a picture television.”
British government minister James Cleverly called the corridor to Russia “skepticism beyond belief”, saying BBC news: “Offering evacuation in the arms of your now ravaged country is a nonsense.”
Meanwhile, fighting is fierce across the country with air raid sirens blaring in the port city of Odessa and Russian tanks now focusing on southern cities. “The Russian occupation forces command is shifting its focus to the south, trying to deprive Ukraine of access to the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, which, in their view, would create conditions for economic repression against with the Ukrainian Resistance,” the Ukrainian National Security Council posted on Facebook. “The enemy does not give up hope of capturing Kyiv and gathering resources to besiege Dnipro.”
