Ukraine-Russia War, Moscow announced a ceasefire for Mariupol this morning to allow the evacuation of civilians and foreign citizens to Zaporizhzhia. The Russian newspaper Rbk reports it on Twitter, citing the Ministry of Defense.
“There is still no agreement. We have written a letter to the International Committee of the Red Cross and we are waiting for a response. We need guarantees,” Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshchuk told the BBC.
In Mariupol, a Red Cross building was bombed by Russian forces. “The occupiers targeted the building of the International Committee of the Red Cross,” said the Human Rights Commissioner of the Ukrainian Parliament, Lyudmyla Denisova. “This is another war crime of the Russian army based on the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and a huge violation of the Geneva Convention – he added in his statement on social media – So far the only ones who had bombed buildings and vehicles with the Red Cross had been the troops of Hitler’s Germany “.
The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) is unable to communicate with some of its employees in Mariupol. The High Commissioner Filippo Grandi affirmed this at CNN. “Some have managed to leave. Others are still inside and we cannot communicate with them at this point”, explains Grandi, who asked for “firm commitments” so that there is no fighting to manage the evacuation corridors. “We need those reassurance, otherwise we can’t do it,” he added.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said during a briefing that the damage caused by the continuous Russian bombing of the city of Mariupol was “devastating”. “Significant damage” has been inflicted on “civil infrastructure, residential buildings, hospitals, parks, everything,” Kirby said, adding that Russian forces are “very, very close” to the city center.
Kirby then announced that Russia has started withdrawing from the Chernobyl nuclear site in northern Ukraine.