As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine entered its 10th day on Saturday, the Russian Defense Ministry has declared what it called a “regime of silence”, in other words, a cease-fire in the besieged southern Ukrainian cities of Mariupol and Volnovakha to allow the exit of civilians.
“Today, March 5, from 10 a.m. Moscow time, the Russian side declares a ceasefire regime and opens humanitarian corridors for the exit of civilians from Mariupol and Volnovakha. Humanitarian corridors and exit routes have been agreed with the Ukrainian side”, said the Ministry in a statement.
The ceasefire followed the second round of talks in Belarus on Thursday between Ukrainian and Russian delegations.
Putin told German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Friday that a third round of talks has been scheduled for this weekend.
The cease-fire, which was to begin at 10 a.m. Moscow time, was set up with the agreement of the Ukrainian government, the Russian Defense Ministry said, making it the first concrete sign of cooperation between the two sides after they agreed in negotiations this week to create humanitarian corridors aimed at evacuating civilians from conflict areas.
A Ukrainian negotiator said the talks didn’t deliver the results that Ukraine needed, forcing both sides to agreed on corridors for civilians to escape.
Pavlo Kirilenko, who heads the Ukrainian government’s regional military administration in the eastern province of Donetsk, confirmed the cease-fire and evacuation of Mariupol in a post on Facebook.
The evacuation, he said, would begin at 11 a.m. local time in Ukraine and would see the evacuation of civilians on municipal buses from several gathering points around Mariupol. Those with their own vehicles could also leave, but Kirilenko exhorted residents to “facilitate the evacuation of civilians as much as possible. Take people with you, fill your vehicle as much as possible”, he wrote.
The corridor he specified begins in Mariupol and extends to the northwest to the city of Zaporizhzhia. He added that it was “strictly forbidden to deviate from the route of the humanitarian corridor.”
The cease-fire comes as Russian forces have pressed the attack in Ukraine’s south, the one area of the country where their campaign appears to be making gains.
Mariupol, a southeastern port city of nearly 450,000 people, has for days suffered a relentless Russian barrage and is all but surrounded. On Saturday, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said in a report quoted by Russian state-news operator Tass that separatist forces “continue to tighten the encirclement around Mariupol.”
Taking the city would further consolidate Russia’s gains on the Black Sea coast and create a link with Crimea, which Moscow annexed illegally in 2014. That would then serve as a springboard for an all-out assault on Odesa, the crown jewel of Ukraine’s coastal cities.
Volnovakha, 35 miles north of Mariupol, lies on a strategic highway linking the territory to the Russian-declared separatist enclave in Donetsk.
Despite the cease-fires in the south, fighting persisted elsewhere in the country Saturday.
Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city and a prime target of Russia’s assault over the last nine days, saw another bout of shelling in the early morning, with observers on social media reporting rocket attacks in the city. Local news outlets also reported shelling in the city of Sumy, about 90 miles northeast of Kharkiv.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, had on February 24, announced that in response to a request by the heads of the Donbass republics, had made a decision to carry out a special military operation in Ukraine in order to protect people “who have been suffering from abuse and genocide bym the Kiev regime for eight years.”
Putin had stressed that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories and the operation was aimed at demilitarizing and denazifying Ukraine.
While clarifying the developments, the Russian Defense Ministry reassured that Russian troops are not targeting Ukrainian cities, but are limited to surgically striking and incapacitating Ukrainian military infrastructure. There are no threats whatsoever to the civilian population, according to the clarification.
Western officials have noticed a shift in Russian strategy from military targets to civilians, with more attacks becoming focused on population centres.
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