The evacuation of the civilian population from Mariupol, in southeastern Ukraine, was postponed due to the non-compliance with the ceasefire around the city and its surroundings “by the Russian side”, the City Council reported today.
“Because the Russian side does not respect the truce and continues to bombard both Mariupol itself and its surroundings, for security reasons, the evacuation of the population is postponed”, the town hall wrote on its Telegram account.
“We ask all the citizens of Mariúpol to march (from the concentration and collection points) and go to the shelters”, he added.
According to the Mayor of the strategic port city, which has almost 450.000 inhabitants , at this time “negotiations are being carried out with Russia to establish a ceasefire and guarantee a safe humanitarian corridor”.
Initially , evacuates her The removal of the civilian population of Mariupol, besieged for the past five days by Russian forces, was to begin at 09.00 local time (07.000 GMT), according to the announcement of the Russian Ministry of Defense, but later was delayed to at 11.000 local time, according with the city council.
Five minutes before the new scheduled time, the Mayor’s Office indicated that it was still waiting for confirmation of the ceasefire throughout the evacuation route, as there was still fighting in some places, such as in the Zaporizhia region.
“At 10.55 local time, confirmation of the ceasefire was received only in the Donetsk region. Further along the route, fighting is taking place in the Zaporizhia region”, he indicated.
The route chosen for the humanitarian corridor was Mariúpol -Nikolskoye-Rozovka-Pologi-Orekhov-Zaporiyia.
The humanitarian ceasefire announced by Russia also included the evacuation of the civilian population from Volnovakha, about 55 kilometers north of Mariupol.
The Ukrainian Minister for the Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories, Irina Vereshchuk, explained that the mediator to establish the humanitarian corridors and guarantee the humanitarian ceasefire is the Red Cross, and that it was planned to evacuate some 200.000 people, according with the UNIAN agency.
“We do everything on our part so that the agreement (on the humanitarian corridors) works. It is one of the main tasks today. We will see if it is possible to advance in the negotiating process” with Russia, the Ukrainian president, Volodímir Zelenski, said in a new video message before the postponement of the evacuation.
The mayor of Mariupol, Vadim Boychenko, stated at dawn that the city was subjected to the Russian blockade for the fifth day.
In the early hours of Thursday, he assured that the city was on the verge of a “humanitarian catastrophe”, since Mariúpol was left without electricity, water and heating due to constant bombing by the Russian Army.
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