Russia To Announce Ceasefire Today, Opens Humanitarian Corridor To Evacuate Citizens From 5 Ukrainian Cities

JAKARTA - Russia's Defense Ministry will announce a ceasefire on Friday, opening humanitarian corridors for the evacuation of Ukrainian citizens from five cities, RIA and Interfax news agencies reported on Thursday.

The agencies quoted Mikhail Mizintsev, head of Russia's National Defense Control Center, as saying people could travel to Russia or other cities in Ukraine.

"From 10:00 Moscow time (07:00 GMT) on March 11, 2022, the Russian Federation will declare a 'truce' and be ready to provide a humanitarian corridor," Interfax said, citing a statement from Mizintsev.

The five cities are Kyiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Mariupol, and Chernihiv. Ukrainian officials complained that Russia had violated the terms of the previous agreement, while Moscow accused Ukrainian forces of interfering with operations.

However, RIA quoted officials as saying the Ukrainian side had to provide a list of people and vehicle registration numbers before the corridor opened.

As previously reported, hundreds of thousands of civilians were still trapped in Ukrainian cities on Thursday, sheltering from Russian airstrikes and shelling as talks between Ukrainian and Russian foreign ministers made little progress.

Entering the third week of Russia's invasion of Ukraine that began on February 24, officials in Mariupol said Russian warplanes were again bombing the besieged southern port city, where a maternity hospital was destroyed on Wednesday.

Not a single civilian was able to leave the Ukrainian city of Mariupol which was besieged on Thursday because Russian forces failed to honor a temporary ceasefire to allow evacuations, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said on national television.

Attempts to deliver food, water, and medicine to the city failed when Russian tanks attacked humanitarian corridors, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a televised address.

"This is truly the terror of an experienced terrorist. The world needs to know this. I have to admit it, we are all dealing with a terrorist state," President Zelenskiy said.

Separately, Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko said 400,000 people were trapped in the city which had gone through 'two days of hell'.

"Every 30 minutes planes arrive over Mariupol city and work in residential areas, killing civilians, old people, women, children," he said in an online post.

Petro Andrushenko, the mayor's adviser, said Russia wanted to "erase our people. They want to stop any evacuation."

To note, Russia's invasion of Ukraine has so far failed to achieve its goal, but has caused thousands of deaths and forced more than 2 million people to flee Ukraine, where several cities are under siege.