Ukraine says Russia assault continues to hit evacuations

Food, water, medicine and almost all other supplies were in desperately short supply in the port city of Mariupol, where Russian and Ukrainian forces had agreed to a 11-hour cease-fire to allow civilians and the wounded to be evacuated.

A second attempt to evacuate civilians from a besieged city in southern Ukraine collapsed on Sunday as Russian attacks stopped plans to create a humanitarian corridor, a Ukrainian government official said, even as Russia warned Ukraine’s neighbours against hosting Kyiv’s military aircraft.

An Ukrainian refugee from Odessa, a port city on the Black Sea, hug as they arrive in Athens by bus, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine on March 6, 2022. (AFP)

Food, water, medicine and almost all other supplies were in desperately short supply in the port city of Mariupol, where Russian and Ukrainian forces had agreed to a 11-hour cease-fire to allow civilians and the wounded to be evacuated. But Russian attacks quickly closed the corridor, Ukrainian officials said. Pope Francis called for an end to the “rivers of blood and tears” created by the war.

“There can be no ‘green corridors’ because only the sick brain of the Russians decides when to start shooting and at whom,” interior ministry adviser Anton Gerashchenko said.

The news dashed hopes that more people could escape the fighting in Ukraine, where Russia’s plan to quickly overrun the country has been stymied by fierce resistance. Russia has made significant advances in southern Ukraine and along the coast, but many of its efforts have become stalled, including an immense military convoy that has been almost motionless for days north of Kyiv.

The war, in its 12th day on Monday, has caused 1.5 million people to flee the country. The head of the UN refugee agency called the exodus “the fastest-growing refugee crisis in Europe since World War II”.

Russian President Vladimir Putin turned the blame for the fighting back on Ukraine, telling Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday that the invasion could be halted only “only if Kyiv ceases hostilities”, according to a Kremlin statement on the phone call.

He said Ukraine had to fulfil “the well-known demands of Russia”, which include what he calls the “demilitarisation” and “denazification” of Ukraine.

Putin spoke by telephone with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Sunday and discussed Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine, the Kremlin said. In a readout of the call, the Kremlin said the discussion factored in Bennett’s “most recent contacts with leaders of a number of countries”. Bennett said on Sunday that Israel would continue trying to mediate between Russia and Ukraine.

“We know for sure that Ukrainian combat aircraft have flown to Romania and other neighbouring countries,” Russian defence ministry spokesperson Igor Konashenkov said in a video briefing.

“The use of the airfield network of these countries for basing Ukrainian military aviation with the subsequent use of force against Russia’s army can be regarded as the involvement of these states in an armed conflict,” he added.

The presidents of Turkey and France, as well as Pope Francis, appealed to Putin to negotiate.

In a highly unusual move, the pope said he had dispatched two cardinals to Ukraine, saying the Vatican would do everything it could to end the conflict. “In Ukraine, rivers of blood and tears are flowing,” the pontiff said in his traditional Sunday blessing. “This is not just a military operation, but a war that sows death, destruction and misery.”

After the cease-fire in Mariupol failed to hold Saturday, Russian forces intensified their shelling of the city and dropped massive bombs on residential areas of Chernihiv, a city north of Kyiv, Ukrainian officials said.

British military officials compared Russia’s tactics to those Moscow used in Chechnya and Syria, where surrounded cities were pulverised by airstrikes and artillery. “This is likely to represent an effort to break Ukrainian morale,” the UK ministry of defence said.

Separately, Ukraine’s national security service said Russian forces in the city of Kharkiv fired rockets at a physics institute that contains nuclear material and a reactor.

Ukrainian President Voldymyr Zelensky reiterated a request for foreign protectors to impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine, which NATO so far has ruled out because of concerns such an action would lead to a far wider war. “The world is strong enough to close our skies,” Zelensky said Sunday in a video address.

Oleksiy Arestovich, an adviser to Zelensky, said Ukrainian officials and international humanitarian organisations were working with Russia through intermediaries to establish corridors from Bucha and Hostomel, which are Kyiv suburbs where there has been heavy fighting.

As Russian forces surrounded several Ukrainian cities, Zelensky appeared on television Saturday night and rallied his people to stay defiant.

“Ukrainians in all of our cities that the enemy has entered — go on the offensive!’’ said Zelensky, who was wearing his habitual military green T-shirt. “You should take to the streets! You should fight! … It is necessary to go out and drive this evil out of our cities, from our land.”

The strength of Ukrainian resistance continues to surprise Russian forces, and they have responded by targeting populated areas, including the cities of Kharkiv, Chernihiv and Mariupol, the UK ministry of defence said in its daily intelligence briefing. The UN human rights office said at least 351 civilians have been confirmed killed, but the true number is probably much higher.