Humanitarian corridors in the south-eastern Ukrainian cities of Mariupol and Volnovakha will reopen today, according to the Russian state news agency TASS.
Some skepticism about the routes has grown after Ukrainian authorities on Saturday suspended evacuations of civilians citing Russian violations of a ceasefire.
“In the morning, humanitarian corridors will open again in both Mariupol and Volnovakha,” Eduard Basurin, deputy head of the so-called People’s Militia of the Donetsk People’s Republic, told reporters, TASS reported.
Civilians in the stricken Ukrainian port city of Mariupol are trapped without electricity and water and unable to recover their dead, the mayor said on Saturday, as he accused Russia of trying to “choke” the city by blocking agreed evacuation routes.
Russia on Saturday agreed to a ceasefire to allow civilians to safely leave Mariupol and Volnovakha, where residents have faced heavy, indiscriminate shelling for days.
However, the evacuations were halted as Ukrainian authorities accused Russia of violating the deal by resuming its attacks and leaving thousands of civilians in situations that local people describe as increasingly dire.
Another attempt to open a humanitarian corridor for civilians in the city of Mariupol will begin at 12 p.m. local time (5 a.m. ET), Donetsk Region Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said on his official Twitter account on Sunday.
A ceasefire will be in effect from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. local time on Sunday, Kyrylenko said.
