Russian shelling halts efforts to evacuate Ukraine

by Yaroslav Trofimov | UPDATED March 08, 2022 08:10 AM EST

A convoy is able to escape the besieged city of Sumi, while the humanitarian crisis in Mariupol deepens as fighting continues and relief efforts fail.

Ukraine managed to evacuate a civilian convoy from the northeastern city of Sumy on Tuesday, but renewed Russian shelling stalled the effort as it exited the city. Local officials said evacuations would resume later in the day.

Heavy fighting continued across the country, particularly in the southeastern city of Mariupol, where evacuation efforts failed for the fourth day in a row and residents were left without electricity or water supply for more than a week.

The combat moved around the strategic city of Izyum in eastern Ukraine, where Russian forces advanced as they attempted to encircle some of the country’s toughest forces in the Donbass region. Ukraine continued to repel Russian attempts to break into the southeastern port city of Mykolaiv, the gateway to Odessa. Some 3,000 citizens managed to escape from the contested city of Irpin, northwest of the capital Kyiv.

On the 13th day after the Russian offensive, the tolls charged on Ukrainian civilians continued to rise. Food and other basic supplies were running low in besieged cities such as Sumy, Chernihiv and Mariupol. Nearly 700,000 people nationwide lacked electricity and heating due to the destruction of civilian infrastructure. Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, has been hit by Russian attacks, with much of its 19th-century city under rubble.

The UN refugee agency said on Tuesday that nearly two million people have fled Ukraine since Russia invaded the country on February 24. The agency estimates that more than a million people have fled their homes and been internally displaced.

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmitro Kuleba said on Tuesday that Russia is holding some 300,000 civilians hostage in Mariupol and is halting evacuations despite agreements through the International Committee of the Red Cross. “War crimes are part of Russia’s well-thought-out strategy,” he said.

In Sumi, a regional capital of 260,000 people, Russian aerial bombing hit several residential high-rise buildings, killing 19 adults and two children, the regional prosecutor’s office said. The regional government said Ukrainian forces using Turkish-made drones were able to hit and destroy three Russian columns advancing to attack the city.

Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshchuk said on Tuesday that, in an agreement reached by the ICRC with Russia, civilians would be able to start leaving Sumy towards the city of Poltava in the morning, and that any combat activity in the region by 9 a.m. will not be held. The afternoon provides an opportunity to re-supply the Sumi population with food and medicine.

Late in the morning, citizens in Sumy began to board evacuation buses, and the first convoy, made up mostly of foreign students, reached Poltava safely. As the second convoy was about to leave, a Russian convoy, including a tank, on the city’s Outer Ring Road came close to a Ukrainian checkpoint and opened fire on it, Sumi Governor Dmitry Zhyvitsky said in a video message. He said the incident had been isolated, and evacuation efforts would resume, giving priority to women, children and the elderly.

“This incident has confirmed that there is no 100% safety in leaving the city. Decide for yourself whether it is more dangerous to stay or leave, ”he told the residents of Sumi.

Russia’s defense ministry said on Tuesday that it had opened humanitarian corridors from Kyiv, Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Mariupol in addition to Sumy. Ukrainian officials said only one of the Sumis has been coordinated by both sides, for now.

Previous agreements between Moscow and Kyiv to evacuate some 200,000 civilians from the southeastern city of Mariupol failed amid ceasefire violations. Mariupol has been without water and electricity for eight days as Russian artillery cordons off its residential areas and Ukrainian defenders refuse to surrender.

On Monday, a third round of talks between Russia and Ukraine about ending the war in Belarus failed to achieve much progress as Kyiv refused to accede to Russian demands that it support Russia’s 2014 annexation of the Crimean peninsula and Recognizes freedom. Russian-made statelets in the Donbass region. Despite the Russian offensive, Ukrainian forces continued to occupy most of the populated areas in the Donbass, which they controlled before the invasion began.

Russia’s chief negotiator, Vladimir Medinsky, an aide to the president, said after the talks, “Discussions are difficult and it is too early to talk about something positive.”

Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers are likely to meet on the sidelines of an international conference in Antalya, Turkey, on Thursday.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky released a selfie video from his office at the presidential palace in Kyiv, showing the familiar cityscape outside his window and pledging not to surrender. “We are all here, working where we have to be. We are all at war, contributing to our victory, which is inevitable.

Mr. Zelensky said that every day of Ukrainian resistance creates a better negotiating situation for Kyiv to end the war and guarantee the country’s peaceful future.

In Izum, eastern Ukraine, much of the city has been destroyed by Russian bombing and artillery over the past several days, said Natalie Kirkuch, who heads a volunteer group that is evacuating civilians. “Things are still dire and thousands still need to leave,” she said. There has been no electricity in the city for five days, and thousands of citizens have taken refuge at a tourist site near a monastery in the nearby town of Syatohirsk, she said.

Ms Kirchak said Russian infantry had entered the northern part of Izium as far as the northern bank of the river that divides it. Ukrainian officials said bridges over the river had been blown up and Ukrainian forces were retreating to regain control on Tuesday morning.

In Kharkiv, “the enemy has slowed down its offensive because all its attempts to enter Kharkiv are being repulsed,” said Governor Oleh Sinyubov. “Our army has a high fighting spirit, and they keep getting new weapons every day.”

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau joins British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte for talks on Ukraine in London on Monday. “We recognize the heroic efforts of Ukrainians, and we will continue to work closely with – and with others – to respond to these blatant violations of international law,” Mr Trudeau wrote on Twitter.

Polish President Andrzej Duda said in remarks after a phone call with Mr Zelensky that if Russian President Vladimir Putin believed “by breaking down houses and killing civilians, he would break the will and spirit of Ukrainians, she is wrong.”

Returning from a trip to the Polish-Ukrainian border, the site of a constant flow of refugees westward, Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrote on Twitter that he was “inspired by the Polish people welcoming Ukrainian refugees for the first time. Russia’s in Ukraine.” The United States and Poland will continue to work together to respond to aggression.”

Mr Blinken spoke with Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dimitro Kuleba about joint efforts to end the “War of Putin’s Choice”.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke with Mr Johnson, President Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday and called on Russia to end the war immediately. “It leads to dramatic human suffering,” Mr. Scholz said.