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.
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“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,” the ICRC said in a statement.
Days of heavy bombardment have left residents of the coastal city trapped without heat, power and water. The city had about 4,00,000 inhabitants before Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine on February 24.
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‘Extremely dangerous’
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 Second World War.
In Kyiv, Ukrainian soldiers bolstered defences by digging trenches, blocking roads and liaising with civil defence 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.”