Allegations exchanged between Kyiv and Moscow on the day of the temporary humanitarian ceasefire in the city of Mariupol, a city in southern Ukraine that has been hit by weeks of intense Russian bombing. Meanwhile, tomorrow, Friday, April 1, online negotiations between Russians and Ukrainians will resume.
THE UNMANITARIAN CORRIDOR “Tonight we received a message from the International Committee of the Red Cross confirms from Russia that it is ready to open a humanitarian corridor from Mariupol with transit to Berdyansk”. Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshcuk announced this on Telegram, announcing the dispatch of 45 buses from Kyiv to Mariupol. “The following corridors were also agreed for today: ️ for the delivery of humanitarian aid and the evacuation of people from the city of Melitopol; ️For a convoy of people with their own means from the city of Energodar to Zaporizhia. The first buses to Mariupol for the evacuation of civilians have left: 17 buses have already left Zaporizhia (about 220 km northwest) for Mariupol Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said: ” Another 28 buses are waiting for permission to pass the Russian checkpoint in Vasylivka near Zaporizhia. “We will do everything so that the buses arrive in Mariupol today and invite the people who have not yet left the city,” Vereshcuk said. Moscow has last night announced that it was ready for a temporary ceasefire of 10 local (9 in Italy) in Mariupol. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is ready” “to lead the evacuation of civilians from the Ukrainian city of Mariupol starting tomorrow on condition that the necessary guarantees are in place, the organization said in a statement one thing happened. The lives of tens of thousands of people in Mariupol depend on it, says the ICRC.
Ukraine, Vereshchuk: “Moscow ok for humanitarian corridor in Mariupol, 45 buses ready”
FEE EXCHANGE “Civilians are trapped in Kharkiv and unable to leave safe routes as Ukrainians continue to fire heavy machine guns at the city’s residential buildings“This was confirmed by ColonelGeneral Mikhail Mizintsev, head of Russia’s National Defense Management Center, as reported by Tass. Meanwhile, Mizintsev confirms that Russia has opened humanitarian corridors in five directions in Ukraine and has handed over 6,521 tons of humanitarian aid cargo to Ukraine since March 2 with 703 humanitarian actions. The Russian army fired phosphorus shells in the central part of the Donetsk region during the night. This is reported by Pravda Ukraine, citing the head of the Donetsk regional military administration, Pavlo Kyrylenko. “Russians fired phosphorus shells in Maryinka, Krasnohorivka and Novomykhailivtsi in Donetsk region,” Kyrylenko said on Telegram, adding that “eleven wounded were taken to hospital, 4 of them were children”.
SPEAK ZELENSKY Meanwhile in a speech on television Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said peace talks with Russia would continue “But at the moment there are only words, nothing concrete.” Zelenskyy said he did not believe Russia’s promises to reduce its military presence in Kyiv. Referring to the phone call with US President Joe Biden, he said American support for his country was vital and that “this moment is a turning point”. Compared to the Russian announcements about a deescalation of the conflict in some regions of the country, the Ukrainian leader said he did not believe anyone, adding that Russian troops are reorganizing to attack only in the eastern Donbass region. His video link with the Australian Parliament is expected this morning.
The Biden administration, meanwhile, continues to evaluate options for further sanctions against Moscow, while White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield confirmed the press rumors and clarified that Vladimir Putin was badly informed about the Russian offensive by the chiefs of the armed forces that he was would have “tensions” with some of his advisors.
THE SITUATION ON THE FIELD The tension is always very high on the ground. For the Pentagon, Russian forces in Ukraine have begun withdrawing from the area of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. But “we still can’t say they’re all gone,” an official said. The mayor of Irpin in Kyiv Oblast, Oleksandr Markushin, instead revealed that “half of the city was destroyed and the rubble was not removed”. The Mykolayiv region has seen a high death toll since the start of the Russian offensive: 134 civilians were killed, while the mayor of Kharkiv, a city in eastern Ukraine, Igor Terekhov said that the Russian army had destroyed 15% of residential buildings the city. From China, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warns Westerners about Afghanistan. The Russian Strategic Missile Forces, a separate branch of Moscow’s armed forces that controls the country’s landlaunched intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), is about to launch exercises in the Orenburg region (southwest, not far from the border with Kazakhstan) that will involve 3,000 soldiers : The Department of Defense has announced it, according to Interfax reports. The planned exercises are personally supervised by the commander of the Strategic Missile Forces.
At the third ministerial conference of Afghanistan’s neighboring countries (Russia, China, Iran, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan), the holder of Moscow diplomacy stated that he considers the presence of any US or NATO military infrastructure in the countries of Asia unacceptable Central at the border with Afghanistan.