Ukraine has reached a preliminary agreement with Russia on establishing a humanitarian corridor to evacuate women, children and the elderly from the besieged city of Mariupol on Wednesday, Ukraine’s deputy PM says.
“Given the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Mariupol,this is where we will focus our efforts today,” Iryna Vereshchuk wrote in a post on Facebook.
As we’ve been reporting, people have been trapped in the key strategic port city for weeks without supplies of food, water and medicines. Here’s why it’s so important a target for Russia.
In the past, such evacuation corridors have been fraught with difficulty to set up and implement.
Russian troops have been accused of blocking bus convoys at checkpoints. Russia has also been accused of forcibly relocating thousands of civilians to Russia or Russian-controlled areas.
Source: BBC
