Reporting on Tuesday from one of the Ukrainian cities hardest hit by Russia’s seemingly indiscriminate artillery shelling. suggested that Russia could fulfill its final promise to allow civilians to flee. But even if the truce in the northeastern city of Sumy holds up and Russia makes good on its promise to provide “humanitarian corridors” for evacuations from other cities, it will be a small salvation in a tragedy that is getting worse by the hour.
On Tuesday, the United Nations said more than 2 million people have fled Ukraine for neighboring countries since Russia launched its brutal invasion 13 days ago.
President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office said Ukrainians would only believe the Kremlin’s offer to allow safe passage from Sumy, the capital of Kyiv, and the devastated cities of Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Mariupol, only when evacuations are in progress. At least three previous local truces were broken when Ukraine and Russia accused each other of violating the truce, and more violations quickly surfaced on Tuesday in the southern port city of Mariupol.
A local official in Sumy said the evacuation was ongoing, but CBS News Senior Foreign Correspondent Charlie D’Agata reports that many people were unable to flee.
During the night, emergency teams cleared the rubble of an apartment building in Sumy, destroyed by Russian airstrikes. They found no survivors, only lifeless bodies, including families with children. At least 20 people were killed in a single strike in Sumy alone on Monday night, according to local authorities.
But even as Russian forces encircle key cities and advance gradually—apparently more slowly than they hoped—to Kiev, not all Ukrainians are fleeing. D’Agata says the Ukrainian defense forces continue to put up fierce resistance and he met civilians in the capital who were digging in to help defend their city.