Ukrainians Flee Besieged Sumy Along The First Evacuation Corridor Agreed With Russia

Russia’s offensive has slowed significantly, Ukraine says
Second high-ranking Russian commander killed, Ukraine reports
Frightened residents flee with babies and pets
Oil price rises as US considers ban on imports from Russia
Russia warns it could cut gas pipeline to Germany

LVIV/IRPIN, Ukraine, March 8 – Ukrainians boarded buses Tuesday to leave the besieged eastern city of Sumy, the first evacuation from a Ukrainian city through a humanitarian corridor agreed with Russia after several failed attempts in recent days.

The governor of the Sumy region, Dmitry Zhyvitsky, said in a video message that the first buses had already left Sumy for the city of Poltava, further west. According to him, priority will be given to the disabled, pregnant women and children in orphanages.

A short video posted by presidential adviser Kirol Timoshenko shows a red bus with civilians on board.

“It was agreed that the first column will start at 10:00 (08:00 Moscow time) from the city of Sumy. The column will be followed by the local population in private transport,” Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshchuk said in a televised address.

Residents also fled the city of Irpin, a front-line suburb of Kyiv, where Reuters journalists filmed families fleeing under heavy shelling on Sunday. Residents ran with their young children in strollers or cradled babies in their arms, while others carried pets and plastic bags with things.

“The city is almost destroyed, and the area where I live, as if there were no houses that were not bombed,” said one young mother, holding a baby under a blanket, her daughter standing nearby.

“Yesterday there was the heaviest bombing and the light and sound are so scary and the whole building is shaking.”

Russian news agency Interfax reported that on Tuesday Moscow was opening corridors to allow people to leave five Ukrainian cities: Chergigov, Kharkiv, Mariupol and the capital Kyiv, as well as Sumy. There were no comments from the Ukrainian side regarding the evacuation from other cities, except for Sumy.

Russian and Ukrainian officials agreed on similar corridors to evacuate residents from the besieged port of Mariupol to the south on Saturday and Sunday, but both efforts failed as each side accused the other of continuing the fire.

Moscow describes its actions in Ukraine as a “special operation” to disarm its neighbor and arrest leaders it calls “neo-Nazis”. Ukraine and its Western allies are calling it an unreasonable excuse to invade a country of 44 million people.

The Russian invasion, the largest attack on a European state since World War II, caused 1.7 million refugees to flee to other countries. Western sanctions have cut Russia off from international trade to a degree it has never before imposed on such a large economy. More

A rescue worker next to a residential building damaged by shelling during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, in Nikolaev, Ukraine, in this promotional image posted March 8, 2022. Press Service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine / Handout via REUTERS

Russia is the world’s leading exporter of oil and gas, and Russia and Ukraine are major suppliers of grains and metals, raising fears that the conflict could lead to massive supply disruptions and undermine the global recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.

CATASTROPHE

Ukraine said the pace of Russia’s advance slowed on Tuesday. The Ministry of Defense said Russian Major General Vitaly Gerasimov, first deputy commander of Russia’s 41st Army, the second Russian major general to be killed since the invasion began, was killed on Monday. The Russian Defense Ministry could not be contacted for comment, and Reuters was unable to verify the reports.

So far, the talks have focused mainly on giving civilians safe passage to avoid bombardment from cities that have come under Russian siege. Sumy in the east and Mariupol in the south suffered the most from the Russian attack.

Russia has said it will require those fleeing Kyiv or Kharkov to go to Russia itself or to its ally Belarus, but Ukraine has rejected these terms. Those who leave Sumy or Mariupol will be allowed to travel to other parts of Ukraine.

Western countries say Russia’s initial plan for a quick strike to overthrow the Kiev government failed in the early days of the war, and Moscow has adjusted its tactics for longer city sieges.

The main landing force, heading towards Kyiv, got stuck on the road north of the capital, the armored column stretched for several miles. In the south, Russia moved further along the coast of the Black and Azov Seas.

Fears of an energy war between Russia and the West intensified this week after the United States forced its allies to ban Russian oil imports. The sanctions have so far made an exception for energy exports from Russia.

US President Joe Biden held a videoconference Monday with the leaders of France, Germany and Britain. The United States is not a major buyer of Russian energy, but Russia supplies 40% of Europe’s gas, and European allies have so far made it clear they are unable to stop Russian energy supplies.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on Monday that Russia could cut off gas supplies to Germany in response to Berlin’s suspension of the construction of a new gas pipeline. Oil prices could more than double to $300 a barrel if the US and its allies ban Russian oil imports, he said.

A senior US defense official said that Putin had already deployed nearly 100% of the more than 150,000 troops he tentatively deployed outside Ukraine ahead of the invasion.

Reuters reporting; Written by Kostas Pitas, Stephen Coates and Peter Graff; Edited by Michael Perry, Raju Gopalakrishnan and Tomasz Janowski

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