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Ukraine: Evacuation bid in Mariupol fails again amid shelling; Russian missile strikes airport
Ukraine-Russia war: Interior ministry adviser Anton Gerashchenko said planned evacuations along designated humanitarian corridors were halted because of an ongoing assault by Russian troops.
A second attempt to evacuate civilians from the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol under siege reportedly failed on Sunday in the wake of continuous shelling by Russian troops.
Evacuations from the port city of Mariupol were scheduled to begin at local time (10am GMT) during a 10am to 9pm local ceasefire, Ukrainian military authorities had said earlier in the day. Russian Presidment Vladimir Putin later blamed Kyiv for failed civilian evacuations from Mariupol.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said a barrage of Russian missiles destroyed the airport in Vinnytsia in the central part of the strife-torn country.
The Kremlin's military invasion of Ukraine entered its 11th day on Sunday leaving over 1.5 million refugees, hundreds dead and thousands injured. Several cities and airbases in Ukraine have been bombed, shelled or hit with ballistic missiles by Russian troops.
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"I have just been informed about a missile strike on Vinnytsia. Eight rockets... The airport was completely destroyed," he said.
The country’s interior ministry adviser Anton Gerashchenko said planned evacuations along designated humanitarian corridors were halted because of an ongoing assault. “There can be no ‘green corridors’ because only the sick brain of the Russians decides when to start shooting and at whom,“ he said on Telegram.
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A similar ceasefire planned for Mariupol and the nearby city of Volnovakha had collapsed a day ago due to massive shelling and bombardment by Russian forces.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said the Ukrainian authorities would be responsible if the statehood of their nation came under threat. Amid an intensified military campaign by Russian forces in the east European nation, leading to more sanctions on the Kremlin by the West, Putin said Ukraine’s leadership needed to understand the consequences of their deeds.
(With inputs from agencies)
