Mariupol authorities accuse Russia of violating ceasefire, halt evacuation

The Ukrainian cities of Mariupol and Volnovaja in the Donetsk oblast have been under a temporary ceasefire regime since 09.00 local time on Saturday, allowing the creation of humanitarian corridors for the evacuation of civilians ten days after the invasion began. This was confirmed by the adviser to the head of the president's office, Mykhailo Podoliyak, and the Russian defence ministry.

"As for the number of cities, this is only the beginning," Podoliyak said. "A working model is being worked out, to which other cities and towns will gradually be added." "Today, 5 March, a ceasefire is announced from 10:00 Moscow time (09:00 Kiev time) and the opening of humanitarian corridors for the exit of civilians from Mariupol and Volnovaja," the Russian defence ministry said in a statement published through agencies.

But Russia is not complying with the ceasefire, according to the Mariupol city council. "The Russians are still shelling and using artillery. It's madness," the city's deputy mayor, Serhiy Orlov, told the BBC. The end of the evacuation routes have reportedly come under attack and even the centre of Mariupol, which has been under siege since Thursday, is still under constant shelling by the Russian army, in what would be a flagrant violation of the truce. In response, the Ukrainian authorities have postponed evacuation efforts.

"Today we have received confirmation from the Russian Ministry of Defence that the passage of Mariupol is safe. We have received a guarantee of silence and have identified three locations. We started to inform the residents of Mariupol and to gather them at these locations for safe evacuation. With the support of the Red Cross, we were to proceed to Zaporizhzhya," the city council said in a note published on Telegram. "But unfortunately, when we were ready, shelling by the regular army of the Russian Federation began along the corridor through which we were to travel. As a result, there is now no regime of silence. This does not give us a sense of security".

"Negotiations are currently underway," continues the statement from the Ukrainian authorities, who have assured the residents of Mariupol to immediately announce the resumption of evacuations as soon as they get security assurances that no further attacks will take place.

The decision, agreed on Thursday at the negotiating table in the Belarusian city of Brest, should have been finalised this Saturday at 17.00 local time and would have served in principle to restore essential infrastructure and services in the cities but, above all, to allow residents to leave. Medicines and food would also have been able to enter the cities, which have been blockaded by Russian forces for several days. But this momentary truce is not at all promising.

The temporary cessation of hostilities could provide supplies for the Russian army, whose precarious logistics have taken their toll since the beginning of their aggression against Ukraine. Likewise, the evacuation of the civilian population could facilitate its air offensives without fear of heavy casualties. But it would also give Ukrainian forces oxygen to maintain resistance in both strategically important enclaves.

Capturing the port city of Mariupol on the Sea of Azov would allow Russian forces to establish a corridor between the Donbass and the Crimean peninsula, encircling Ukrainian troops and blocking one of their exits to the sea. Meanwhile, Volnovaja is located on one of the front lines of the Donbass, where conflict has raged for the past eight years between the Ukrainian army and pro-Russian separatists.

The Ukrainian presidential office has published a list of cities besieged by the Russian army that would need humanitarian corridors to alleviate the situation of the civilian population. The list includes cities such as Chernobyl, Kharkov, Zaporiyia, Kherson and the capital, Kiev, as well as the regions of Lugansk and Donetsk. This brings to eight the number of oblasts with cities devastated by the continuous air strikes carried out by Russian forces.

Pending a new meeting of the Russian and Ukrainian delegations, it is possible that the same 'modus operandi' will be reproduced in the coming days in other cities affected by the invasion. For the moment, the first humanitarian corridor would have affected more than 470,000 inhabitants, some 450,000 from Mariupol and another 2,000 residents of Volnovaja.

The Mariupol city council had announced that evacuations would begin at 11:00 local time (09:00 GMT) and called on drivers to carry as many belongings as possible. The port city has been under constant air strikes for the past five days, and the ceasefire would allow Mariupol to restore its critical infrastructure, according to Mayor Vadym Boichenko.

As elsewhere in the country, hundreds of thousands of people have been living without heat, water and electricity in Mariupol since Thursday. "The enemy does not know the value of human life, but we will do everything we can to help our citizens," said Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov, who is leading negotiations with Russia. "We hope that the humanitarian corridor will work and we will be able to evacuate civilians.

"Today, NATO leadership has given the green light to bomb more Ukrainian cities and towns," Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelenski charged in response to the Atlantic Alliance's refusal to decree a no-fly zone over Ukraine. According to the organisation's Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, this decision would extend the conflict to the entire European continent.

The Ukrainian leader, aware that air strikes are the Russian army's main trump card, intends to block this route at all costs. Even more so after learning that Moscow has committed "war crimes" by dropping cluster bombs on Ukraine. This lethal weaponry has been identified by Human Rights Watch (HRW) and confirmed by NATO itself. Ukrainian forces are overwhelmed in this way.