LVIV, Ukraine (AP) – Safe corridors intended to let Ukrainian civilians escape the Russian onslaught could open Tuesday, Kremlin officials said, though Ukrainian leaders were skeptical since prior efforts to establish evacuation routes crumbled amid renewed attacks.
With the invasion well into its second week, Russian troops were making significant advances in southern Ukraine but stalled in some other regions. Soldiers and volunteers fortified the capital, Kyiv, with hundreds of checkpoints and barricades designed to thwart a takeover. A steady rain of shells and rockets fell on other population centers, including the Kyiv suburb of Bucha, where the mayor reported heavy artillery fire.
“We can’t even gather up the bodies because the shelling from heavy weapons doesn’t stop day or night,” Mayor Anatol Fedoruk said. “Dogs are pulling apart the bodies on the city streets. It’s a nightmare.”
In one of the most desperate cities, the encircled southern port of Mariupol, an estimated 200,000 people – nearly half the population of 430,000 – were hoping to flee, and Red Cross officials waited to hear when a corridor would be established.
Russia’s coordination center for humanitarian efforts in Ukraine said Russia will begin a cease-fire at 10 a.m. Moscow time (0700 GMT) to allow civilians to flee through special corridors agreed upon with Ukrainian authorities, according to Russian media. Most of those corridors would lead to Russia, either directly or through Belarus, though people in Kharkiv would be allowed to travel to western Ukraine, the center said.