The Ukrainian government has agreed an evacuation corridor to evacuate civilians from the northeastern city of Sumy, which has seen frequent Russian strikes and airstrikes in recent days.
Ukrainian Minister of Unification of Temporarily Occupied Territories Irina Vereshchuk said the corridor was agreed upon by the Russian Defense Ministry in a letter to the International Committee of the Red Cross.
The route of the evacuation corridor will run from Sumy via Holubivka and Lokvitsia to the city of Poltava in central Ukraine. It will open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Tuesday, Vereshchuk said, adding that “all obstacles … must be removed from the entire route.”
“No other route was agreed,” she said. “We call on Russia to immediately agree on these routes and ensure a stable ceasefire on these routes.”
He said Ukraine hoped that others would also follow the Sumi Corridor.
Bombing in Sumi: According to the State Emergency Services (SES) in Ukraine, Russian airstrikes on an apartment building in Sumy killed nine civilians, including two children.
Earlier this week several previous attempts to evacuate civilians failed, with Western leaders accusing the Russian military of targeting previously approved safe routes.
On Sunday, a Russian attack struck an evacuation intersection outside Kyiv, killing eight people, including two children, who were trying to escape.
On Monday, Ukraine’s ambassador to the United Nations accused Russia of stalling efforts to evacuate civilians, saying it was “terrible” that Russian troops opened fire on evacuations that both countries use as evacuation corridors. . Some roads have been allotted.