As Mariupol, the coastal city in southern Ukraine, lies under rubble, exhausted after weeks of siege, with Russian forces having entered most of its areas, Kyiv announced on Wednesday that an agreement has been reached to open a humanitarian corridor after several attempts failed since last Saturday. Irina Vereshchuk, Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister, confirmed that an agreement had been reached with Russia regarding a humanitarian corridor to evacuate civilians from the besieged port of Mariupol in southeastern Ukraine.
In a message via Telegram, she stated, "We have reached a preliminary agreement with the Russians on a humanitarian corridor for women, children, and the elderly," according to Agence France-Presse. The mayor of the city, Vadym Boychenko, expressed hope to evacuate 6,000 civilians today, emphasizing that 100,000 civilians remain trapped in the besieged city, while he claims that tens of thousands have been killed.
Vereshchuk had announced on Tuesday that it was impossible to organize any evacuations for civilians from eastern and southern Ukraine due to the lack of an agreement with the Russian side, marking the third consecutive day without progress.
It is noteworthy that approximately 300,000 Ukrainians have been evacuated through humanitarian corridors since the start of the Russian operation at the end of February, according to a report issued yesterday evening by the Ukrainian Ministry of Reintegration. The ministry added that the Ukrainian government initially proposed opening more than 340 humanitarian corridors, but Russian forces agreed to about 300 of them, although only 176 were actually used. The ministry accused the Russians of violating the ceasefire or obstructing buses several times, a claim that Moscow continuously denies, asserting that it does not obstruct civilian buses.
It is worth mentioning that Mariupol, which had a population of about 400,000 Ukrainian citizens before the Russian operation, has been turned into ruins over weeks of bombing and siege. Since the onset of the Russian military operation on Ukrainian territory on February 24, it has been a significant target for Moscow, especially since controlling it would enable a connection between eastern Ukrainian regions and the Crimean Peninsula to the south, which was annexed to Russian territory in 2014.
