Around 200,000 people were trapped in the besieged city of Mariupol on Monday after the fighting stopped evacuation efforts over the weekend, with no sign that massive international sanctions were discouraging Moscow from its invasion of Ukraine.
An attempt to evacuate residents from the besieged southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol collapsed for a second day on Sunday, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said, blaming an insufficiently clear agreement between the two sides. The ICRC gave a statement
“Amid devastating scenes of human suffering in Mariupol, a second attempt today to start evacuating an estimated 200,000 people out of the city came to a halt,”
Ukraine Army says it is engaged in “fierce battles” with Russian forces outside Mykolayiv.
Mariupol city council said a convoy of evacuees was not able to depart on Sunday because Russian forces continued shelling despite a ceasefire agreement that was meant to last into the evening. A similar evacuation plan was thwarted by shelling on Saturday. “It is extremely dangerous to take people out under such conditions,” the city council said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian authorities said about 400 people fleeing the nearby town of Volnovakha under a similar evacuation plan came under Russian fire on Sunday. They did not say if there were any casualties. Russian President Vladimir Putin in a telephone call with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron blamed Kyiv for failed civilian evacuations. He also spoke with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, who appealed for a ceasefire in the conflict that the United Nations says has created the fastest-growing refugee crisis in Europe since the Second World War.
In Kyiv, Ukrainian soldiers bolstered defenses by digging trenches, blocking roads, and liaising with civil defense units as Russian forces bombarded areas nearby. “Positions are prepared, we’ve fitted them out and we are simply waiting to meet them here,” said a soldier. “Victory will be ours.”
