Hopes of establishing a humanitarian corridor in and out of the besieged southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol were dashed again on Friday as Russian troops continued their military assault.
“We were actually hoping that safe passage could be provided today,” Diana Santana, spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), told Yahoo News. “Unfortunately it’s not happening today, but we’re still hopeful.”
A team of ICRC staff had been en route to Mariupol early Friday to try to facilitate the safe passage of civilians and relief supplies but were forced to return to Zaporizhzhia, a Ukrainian city 140 miles north of Mariupol, after “Precautions and conditions have been put in place making it impossible to proceed,” said an ICRC press release. The team will try again on Saturday.
“It is crucial for the success of the operation that the parties respect the agreements and provide the necessary conditions and security guarantees,” the press release said in part.
A building in Mariupol, Ukraine, was damaged by shelling on Tuesday. (Leon Klein/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
UNICEF staffers shared similar frustrations at not being able to access Mariupol “where people desperately need help.”
“The humanitarian corridor/evacuation didn’t work,” Toby Fricker, communications chief for UNICEF South Africa, who is currently in Ukraine, told Yahoo News in an email. “We hope to do what we can. However, getting to Mariupol is a drive through very competitive areas, so it is very challenging.”
In towns outside of Mariupol but nearby, UNICEF reported some success in delivering relief supplies to those in need.
“Where we have safe access, we can deliver essential supplies,” said Joe English, another UNICEF worker. “Just yesterday, UNICEF was among the UN agencies and humanitarian partners who were able to deliver supplies, including children and hospital patients, to thousands of people in the encircled city of Sumy, where shelling and fighting have destroyed homes, hospitals and schools, cut off power and water and prevented commercial shipments of food and other goods.”
The story goes on
A child is helped off a bus at the registration center in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, on Friday. (Emre Caylak/AFP via Getty Images)
In the past, Russia has accused Ukraine of failing to establish a safe corridor or passageway out of Mariupol, while Ukrainian officials have repeatedly accused Russian troops of compromising aid missions near the city by blocking humanitarian convoys, often with deadly force.
Petro Andryushchenko, an adviser to Mariupol’s mayor, said Thursday that Russian troops prevented even the smallest shipment of aid from entering the city.
“The city remains closed for entry and it is very dangerous to leave it on personal transport,” Andryushchenko said on the Telegram messaging app.
A man walks past a damaged tank in Mariupol on Tuesday. (Leon Klein/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Mariupol, a strategic port city that was home to more than 400,000 people just three weeks ago, has been almost completely cut off from the outside world by advancing Russian forces. Tens of thousands of Ukrainians are estimated to be trapped in the city in “inhumane conditions,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said last week.
“There is nothing left,” Zelenskyy said when he addressed the Italian parliament via video on Tuesday. “Just ruins.”
Most residents remain confined to bomb shelters and the basements of buildings across the city, clinging to the hope that they will eventually be evacuated.
A mother hugs her son in front of her destroyed house in Mariupol. (Maximilian Clarke/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
If captured, Mariupol, once Ukraine’s tenth largest city, would give Russia strategic control of Ukraine’s southern coast.
As of Friday, more than 4.1 million Ukrainians had fled the country, with the majority – over 2.3 million – finding refuge in Poland, according to the UN refugee agency.
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Cover thumbnail: Leon Klein/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images