(Photo: Giovanni Kasmadi / Shatterstock)
Will this time happen? The Russian army announced this morning (Monday) a ceasefire that will take effect at 9:00 a.m. in a number of cities in Ukraine – including the capital Kyiv. According to the Russian announcement, the forces will contain the fire in order to allow the evacuation of the residents.
(Video: Roi Avraham, GPO Sound: Ben Peretz, GPO)
The Russian Defense Ministry said it would open humanitarian corridors in Kiev, Kharkiv, Mariupol and Sumy, and forces would allow city residents to evacuate. According to the Russian news agency Interfax, the construction of the humanitarian corridors is being carried out at the request of French President Emanuel Macron, who last night spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin – but in France denied the reports.
This is the third time that Russia has announced a ceasefire with the aim of allowing the evacuation of residents. However, in the previous two times the ceasefire collapsed shortly after it began following firing at the humanitarian corridors set up. In both cases the Russian and Ukrainian forces blamed each other for violating the ceasefire and preventing the evacuation.
Indeed, shortly after the ceasefire took effect, Ukraine claimed that this time too it was a Russian exercise – because the route of the humanitarian corridors was leading the Ukrainian residents to Russia and Belarus. The Ukrainian government argued that “Ukrainian citizens should have the right to evacuate to other areas of their country. The Russian position is completely immoral, and exploits the suffering of the people of their country.”
Last night a ceasefire was decided in the city of Mariupol, after a week in which the city’s residents were left with almost no food, water and electricity. However, two hours after the ceasefire began, Ukrainian National Guard forces accused the Russians of shelling the areas designated to be used for the evacuation. According to Mayor Vadim Boychenko, “the Russians are working systematically to make sure the city is besieged. They do not even give us the opportunity to count the wounded and killed, because the shelling does not stop.”
On the other hand, pro-Russian rebel groups claimed that the Ukrainian army violated the ceasefire, saying “Ukrainian nationalists” fired at the evacuation zones in order to hold the Russians responsible. Finally, it was announced that the second attempt to evacuate the residents of the city of Mariupol failed, after only about 300 evacuees managed to leave the city – out of over 200,000 people who planned to evacuate.
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