The Russian army announced the opening of a humanitarian corridor today to secure the departure of civilians in the Azovstal complex in Mariupol, while Kyiv asked the United Nations Secretary-General to ensure any agreement regarding humanitarian corridors from Azovstal.

The head of the National Defense Management Center of the Russian Defense Ministry said that the Russian forces will stop all hostilities unilaterally, and retreat to a safe distance, to ensure the evacuation of civilians in the factory to any destination of their choice.

On the other hand, Reuters news agency quoted the Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister as denying any agreement with Moscow to open a humanitarian corridor from Mariupol today, and the Ukrainian official said that his country had asked the Secretary-General of the United Nations to guarantee any agreement on opening a humanitarian corridor from Azovstal.

On the other hand, the separatists of the Donetsk region (eastern Ukraine) said that their forces evacuated today 161 civilians from Mariupol to the areas under their control.

And the separatists published pictures of armored vehicles with loudspeakers, calling on Ukrainian forces at the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol to surrender.

The island team entered the port of Mariupol less than a week after the Russian and separatist forces took control of it. The team monitored the presence of foreign merchant ships still besieged in the port adjacent to the Azovstal Industrial Complex, where the battles between Russian and Ukrainian forces are taking place.


The second phase

In a parallel context, the Russian forces announced that the second phase of the Russian military operation in Ukraine will focus on tightening control over Donbass and southern Ukraine, opening the way to reach the forces in the breakaway region of Transnistria.

For his part, the commander of the Ukrainian Air Force in the eastern region said that a Russian warplane was shot down in the Kharkiv province.

The governor of the province said that 3 civilians were killed and 3 others were injured in the Russian bombing of the province.

A Ukrainian railway official also said that five stations in the center of the country were bombed, causing casualties.

As for the head of the Lviv regional administration, he reported explosions and fires in two regions of the province on Monday morning.


thwart progress

The Ukrainian Defense Ministry said that Russian forces continue to launch attacks to take control of Donetsk and Lugansk provinces.

The spokesman for the General Staff Oleksandr Stabun said that the Russian army continues to bombard the cities of Kharkiv, Karasivka, Prudyanka and Kurorpuchkino.

He pointed out that the Ukrainian forces had thwarted the advance of the Russian army in the directions of Izyum - and Parvenkov - and Sloviansk.

For its part, the Russian Defense Ministry announced the destruction of military centers, equipment and oil refining depots in various regions, and also announced the dropping of two marches of Ukrainian forces.

The Russian Defense Ministry broadcast a video of its launch of the "Iskander" missile on Ukrainian territory, and the video showed the moment of launch, but the Russian Defense Ministry did not specify the target that the missile targeted, nor the date of its launch.

The Russian Defense Ministry also announced that the Russian forces had destroyed, with long-range and high-precision weapons, fuel production facilities in an oil refinery, and oil products storage facilities, in the northern suburbs of Kermanchoug.

During the night, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said that during the night, high-precision missiles launched from the air hit 6 Ukrainian military installations.

The authorities of the Vincentia province said that 5 people were killed in Russian shelling, which targeted two areas in the province in western Ukraine.


fire

In a parallel context, the Russian Emergencies Ministry announced that a fire broke out in an oil depot in the Bryansk region, bordering Ukraine.

The ministry stated, in a statement, that firefighting and rescue crews were sent to the scene, noting that there are no plans to evacuate civilians from the area.

The fire, which broke out at dawn, affected two fuel tanks in the area.

Video clips showed a huge fire in the province, without specifying its causes.