Kyiv dismisses Moscow’s corridor offer
Kyiv has dismissed Russia’s offer of new “humanitarian corridors” to transport Ukrainians trapped under Moscow’s bombardment to Russia itself and its ally Belarus, slamming the announcement as an immoral stunt.
The announcement by Moscow came after two days of failed ceasefires to let civilians escape the besieged city of Mariupol, where hundreds of thousands of people are trapped under relentless bombardment without food and water.
The new “corridors” would be opened at 10am Moscow time (3pm Hong Kong time) from the capital Kyiv and the eastern cities of Kharkiv and Sumy, as well as Mariupol, Russia’s defence ministry said.
According to maps published by the RIA news agency, the corridor from Kyiv will lead to Belarus, while civilians from Kharkiv will be permitted to go only to Russia.
The ministry said Moscow would also airlift Ukrainians from Kyiv to Russia. However, these were unlikely destinations for many Ukrainians who would prefer to head toward countries on the western and southern sides.
An official for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the move “completely immoral” and said Russia was trying to “use people’s suffering to create a television picture”.
“They are citizens of Ukraine, they should have the right to evacuate to the territory of Ukraine,” the official said ahead of a third round of talks yesterday.
“This is one of the problems that is causing the humanitarian corridors to break down. They seem to agree to them, but they themselves want to supply humanitarian aid for a picture on TV, and want the corridors to lead in their direction.”
Later, Belarusian news agency Belta posted a photo of Russian and Ukrainian representatives on Telegram, saying “humanitarian corridors to evacuate” the civilian population in Ukraine were on the agenda for the talks on the Belarus-Poland border.
While Russia stepped up its shelling of cities yesterday, including the town of Gostomel near Kyiv, Kharkiv in the east, Sumy in the northeast, Chernihiv in the north and Mykolayiv in the southwest, French President Emmanuel Macron did not ask Vladimir Putin to open humanitarian corridors towards Russia and Belarus, his office said, refuting a claim made by Russian officials.
Moscow announced the proposed escape routes after the two leaders spoke over telephone, saying the move was taken after a “personal request” by Macron.
But the Elysee Palace said no such request was made and Macron later accused Putin of hypocrisy and cynicism over the humanitarian corridors allowing evacuation only to Russia or Belarus.
Russia’s invasion – which has been condemned around the world – forced more than 1.5 million Ukrainians to flee abroad, and triggered sweeping sanctions that have isolated Moscow in a way never before experienced by such a large economy.
Most Ukrainians had fled to neighbouring countries such as Poland, which had taken in some 885,000 people as of Sunday, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said.
Russia denied deliberately targeting civilians in its attacks. It called the invasion it launched on February 24 a “special military operation” to disarm Ukraine and arrest leaders it said were neo-Nazis.
But, Ukraine and its Western allies said this was nothing but a pretext for Moscow to conquer a nation of 44 million people.
Meanwhile, German Development Minister Svenja Schulze warned that Russia’s invasion threatened to drive millions of people in Africa into hunger.
Ukraine’s wheat production, a major food source for Africa, could be at risk if the conflict continued, Schulze said, adding that it could mean “8 to 13 million additional people will be driven into hunger”.
Oil prices soared to their highest levels since 2008 in Asian trade after the Biden administration in the United States said it was exploring banning imports of Russian oil.
Russia provides 7 per cent of global oil supply and Russian oil accounts for about 8 per cent of US crude imports.
Japan, which counts Russia as its fifth-biggest supplier of crude oil, was also in discussion with the US and European countries about banning Russian oil imports, Kyodo News reported yesterday.
Europe relied on Russia for crude oil and natural gas but had become more open to the idea of banning Russian products, a source told Reuters.
Meanwhile, the general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said Russian troops were “beginning to accumulate resources for the storming of Kyiv”.