Ukraine’s Mariupol city plans evacuation again, Odessa faces risks of assault


FE ONLINE DESK | Published: March 06, 2022 17:40:21 | Updated: March 07, 2022 11:18:31


An elderly woman trying to leave the city of Irpin in the Kyiv region of Ukraine on Saturday –Reuters photo

Authorities in the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol planned to start evacuating some residents from noon (1000 GMT) under a temporary ceasefire deal, after a similar deal a day earlier collapsed with Russia and Ukraine blaming each other for the failure.

The city council said the evacuation would begin at noon and would extend until 9 pm (1900 GMT), a plan announced as Russia's assault on Ukraine entered its 11th day and refugees continued to flood across the border into Ukraine's neighbours, reports Reuters.

Kyiv renewed its call for the West to toughen sanctions beyond an existing effort to isolate Russia economically, and to deliver more weapons to repel the invasion. Moscow calls its actions a "special military operation".

Moscow and Kyiv traded blame over Saturday's failed ceasefire to allow civilians to flee Mariupol and another southern city, Volnovakha. The Mariupol mayor has said he wants to help more of the city's 400,000 residents to leave.

Elsewhere in Ukraine, police said there was relentless Russian shelling and air raids in the northeast Kharkiv region.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday said Russian forces were preparing to bombard the city of Odessa on Ukraine's Black Sea coast.

"Rockets against Odessa? This will be a war crime," he said in a televised address.

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