Russia and Ukraine trade accusations over failed civilian evacuations
Russia and Ukraine blamed each other on Saturday for failing to provide safe passage to civilians fleeing two besieged and bombarded cities on the 10th day of a war that has triggered Europe's biggest humanitarian crisis in decades.
The war, which began with Russia's invasion of Ukraine on February 24, led to the flight of nearly 1.5 million refugees west to the European Union, and resulted in unprecedented international sanctions against Moscow, as well as a warning of a global economic recession.
The Russian Defense Ministry said units of them had opened humanitarian corridors near the cities of Mariupol and Volnovakha, which are surrounded by Russian forces.
But the city council in Mariupol said Russia was not implementing the ceasefire agreement needed to provide safe passage and therefore asked residents to return to shelters and wait for new information on the evacuation.
The Russian Information Agency reported that the Russian Defense Ministry accused Ukrainian "nationalists" of preventing civilians from leaving the two cities.
Mariupol, a port in southeastern Ukraine, has come under heavy bombardment in a sign of the strategic importance Moscow attaches to it because of its location between Russian-backed separatist-held areas in eastern Ukraine and the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014. .
"Tonight, the bombing was more intense and closer," MSF quoted a member of its mission in the city as saying.
So far, there is no electricity, water, heating or cell phone connections in the city and food supplies are running out.
The Ukrainian government said that its plan is to evacuate 200,000 residents of Mariupol and 150,000 from Volnovakha.
The TASS news agency quoted the Moscow-backed separatists as saying that only 17 people left Mariupol on Saturday, while no one left Volnovakha.
Humanitarian catastrophe
Despite limited ceasefire plans, the Russian Defense Ministry said a massive offensive would continue in Ukraine while it denied it was targeting civilians or seeking to occupy the country, describing its strikes as a "special military operation".
Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenko said Russian forces were carrying out strikes on military infrastructure and that forces from separatist-controlled Donetsk were tightening the siege on Mariupol.
Aid organizations are warning of a humanitarian catastrophe across the country.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said on Saturday that the number of refugees from Ukraine could rise to 1.5 million by the end of the weekend on Sunday from 1.3 million currently.
Women and young children passed through the Mediaka checkpoint in southeastern Poland in sub-zero temperatures.
A man crossing in the opposite direction shouted into the crowd that the men should go back to Ukraine to fight.
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