By Isabel van Brugen
March 8, 2022 Updated: March 8, 2022
Moscow
has again proposed to set up humanitarian corridors out of key Ukrainian cities
that would lead mostly to Russia and Belarus starting from 9 a.m. local time,
Russian news agencies reported.
According
to Interfax news agency, civilians departing the Ukrainian cities of Kyiv, Chernigov, and Kharkiv would travel
to Russia, some via Belarus. The outlet cited a
statement by a Russian committee charged with humanitarian coordination
in Ukraine.
It
comes a day after Kyiv rejected Russia’s offer to establish humanitarian
corridors leading to the same countries. Monday’s announcement was Russia’s
third attempt at creating humanitarian corridors in Ukraine, and came amid
reports that its military had violated previous ceasefires.
Russia’s
military said on Monday morning that humanitarian corridors would be opened in
the cities of Kyiv, Kharkiv, Sumy, and Mariupol, effective from 10 a.m. Moscow
time.
Ukrainian
President Volodymyr Zelensky rejected
that proposal to evacuate Ukrainian citizens into what he has described as
“occupied territory” in Russia and Belarus.
“This
is unacceptable option of creating humanitarian corridors [only in Russia and
Belarus]. Our people from Ivankiv, Dymer, Vyshhorod, Kyiv won’t go to Belarus
to fly later to Russia,” Ukraine’s Deputy Prime
Minister, Iryna Vereshchuk, also said in a video statement.
A
spokesperson for Zelensky called the move “completely immoral,” saying Russia
was trying to exploit the situation for propaganda by using “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.
Tuesday’s
proposal would allow people leaving the city of Sumy and Mariupol to depart to
either Russia or to Ukrainian cities Poltava and Zaporizhia, Interfax reported.
Interfax
said Ukraine had been given until 3 a.m. Moscow time to agree to the terms.
Ukraine officials.
The
Ukrainian ambassador to the United Nations Sergiy Kyslytsya told a U.N.
Security Council meeting earlier that Russia had “undermined arrangements” for
humanitarian corridors on Tuesday by insisting all routes would go through
Russia or Belarus.
Kremlin
spokesman Dmitry Peskov outlined
four conditions that it said Ukraine must meet in order to halt military action
in the country.
He told
Reuters on Monday that Russia is demanding that Ukraine halt military
action, change its constitution to enshrine neutrality, acknowledge Crimea as
Russian territory, and recognize the separatist republics of Donetsk and
Lugansk as independent territories. He said that Russia had told Ukraine it was
ready to stop its military action “in a moment” if Kyiv met the requirements.
Zelensky
in an interview with ABC News said the requirements amount to an “ultimatum.”
“We are
not prepared for ultimatums but we have the possible solution, resolution for
these three key items,” Zelensky said. “What needs to be done is for President
[Vladimir] Putin to start talking instead of living
in the information bubble without oxygen.”
Reuters contributed to this report.
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