Ukraine has begun evacuating civilians from more areas after new “humanitarian corridors” were opened – as the number of people fleeing Russia’s advance into the country reached two million.
Ukrainian officials said people had started leaving the northeastern city of Sumy and the town of Irpin, near capital Kyiv, on Tuesday.
Both areas have been under heavy Russian bombardment.
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It followed agreement between Russian and Ukrainian officials around the establishment of “humanitarian corridors” to allow civilians out of some towns and cities besieged by Russia’s forces.
Russia’s defence ministry said on Tuesday it had opened the routes to evacuate people from Kyiv, Cherhihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv and Mariupol, adding that Russian invading forces had introduced a “regime of silence” from 7am GMT.
Previous attempts to lead civilians to safety have collapsed amid renewed attacks.
However, on Tuesday, video posted by Ukrainian officials showed buses packed with people moving along a snowy road from the eastern city of Sumy and others leaving the besieged southern port of Mariupol.
Sky News defence editor Deborah Haynes said “a key problem” hampering the effort to help civilians escape was a Russian offer for them to be channelled into Russia or to Belarus, its key ally.
Ukraine has rejected such a move as unacceptable given that it is the Russian invasion and bombardments that have forced civilians to flee their homes.
Key developments:
• Ukraine claims senior Russian general has been killed in fighting near Kharkiv
• Zelenskyy accuses Russia of violating earlier humanitarian corridors
• Ukrainian president will make ‘historic address’ to British MPs later
• Russia has warned it could cut its gas supplies to the West through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline
• Talks between Ukraine and Russia held in Belarus
• New laws to help target Russian oligarchs pass Commons
Russia ‘directly targeting evacuation corridors’
The UK’s Ministry of Defence criticised Russia’s efforts to offer humanitarian relief.
It said the Kremlin likely proposed humanitarian corridors as a cynical ploy to deflect criticism about the dire situation for families in besieged cities and also to buy time to ready its forces for more offensives.
The latest intelligence update published by MoD said: “Russia continues to directly target evacuation corridors, resulting in the death of several civilians whilst trying to evacuate Irpin.
“Due to heavy fighting in the town, it has reportedly been without heat, water or electricity for days.”
A total of more than two million people have so far left Ukraine due to Russian attacks, the UN said on Tuesday, after the EU said as many as five million could be forced to flee if the invasion continued.
About 1.2 million Ukrainians have so far fled to Poland, including 141,500 on Monday, the Polish Border Guard said on Tuesday.
Hundreds of thousands more have gone to Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and non-EU Moldova, one of Europe’s poorest countries.
The EU is offering all Ukrainian refugees the right to live and work in member countries for up to three years under its emergency plan.
UK effort ‘shockingly low and painfully slow’
The UK has so far failed to offer a similar scheme, insisting that only those Ukrainians with close family already in Britain would be allowed to enter the country.
Under the rules, brothers and sisters, the parents of people over 18 and children who have reached the age of 18 are not included in the “concessions” for family migration visas.
The Home Office said 8,900 applications for refugees to come to the UK via the Ukraine Family Scheme had been submitted since Friday – but that only 300 visas had been issued.
Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said: “That’s shockingly low and painfully slow. Just 250 since yesterday.
“At this rate it would be weeks before many families reunite. Urgent action needed.”
Read more:
• PM says ‘nothing is off the table’ when it comes to sanctions
• Why has the UK issued so few visas for Ukrainian refugees?
• What’s a no-fly zone and why won’t the West enforce one in Ukraine?
A petition calling on the government to let anyone with a Ukrainian passport take refuge in the UK had been signed by more than 135,360 people at the time of writing.
“Join other nations in providing a route to safety for refugees. Waive all visa requirements for Ukrainian passport holders arriving in the UK,” it says.
“They are war refugees, our hands are tied to assist with boots on the ground, let us give the people of Ukraine a safe place for their families and children to flee to.”
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The head of the UN refugee agency warned that following the first wave of refugees from Ukraine there was likely to be a second wave consisting of more vulnerable refugees.
“If the war continues we will start seeing people that have no resources and no connections,” UNHCR head Filippo Grandi told a news conference.
“That will be a more complex situation to manage for European countries going forward, and there will need to be even more solidarity by everybody in Europe and beyond.”