Humanitarian corridor to open in besieged port city of Mariupol

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Two humanitarian corridors between Russia and Ukraine are set to open Friday, including one from the besieged port city of Mariupol, which has borne the brunt of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s troops since the invasion began more than four weeks ago.

It is the first time in recent days that an evacuation route has been announced from Mariupol.

The corridors will operate from Melitopol to Zaporizhzhia and another from Mariupol to Zaporizhzhia, “for those who will leave with their own transport,” Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly called attention to the humanitarian crisis in Mariupol and this week said the 100,000 people who remain trapped there were under fear of “constant shelling” and had no access to clean water or medicine. He also said they were on the verge of starvation.

Multiple humanitarian relief convoys sent to Mariupol over the past three weeks did not make it to their destinations “due to insecurity,” Tarik Jasarevic, a spokesman for the World Health Organization, said.

Local Mariupol officials also announced Friday that an estimated 300 people were killed during the March 16 Russian bombing of Mariupol’s Drama Theater, which had been used as a bomb shelter. Russian advances in the southern part of the city have made it difficult to find survivors in the rubble, and it is unclear how local officials came to the tally. Russian forces struck the theater, even though the word “children” was written in large white letters at the front and the back of the building.

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“There cannot and never will be an explanation for this inhuman cruelty,” the Mariupol City Council wrote on its Telegram channel. “As there never will be forgiveness for those who brought devastation, pain, and suffering to our home.”

Ukraine’s defense ministry said Friday that Russian forces had been “partially successful” in securing a land corridor around Mariupol to move troops and supplies between Crimea and Russia. The move has been a military goal since the war began on Feb. 24. Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.

In Dnipro, rescue workers have been searching for survivors among the debris following a pair of missile strikes on the outskirts of the city located in the eastern part of Ukraine. The strikes caused “serious destruction,” regional Gov. Valentyn Reznychenko said on social media, adding that “rescuers are dismantling the debris and looking for people.”

Dnipro has been a critical target for Russian forces because it sits in a strategically important spot between areas where Russian forces have taken control in the south and east. If Moscow is able to advance on Dnipro both from the north and from the south, it would isolate Ukrainian forces in the Donbas region in the east or may even force them to retreat.

Russia Ukraine War
Displaced people arrive from Dnipro to the Lviv main station in western Ukraine on Thursday. Millions of people in Ukraine have made their way out of the country, some pushed to the limit after trying to stay and cope.

Russian forces have also been shelling Ukrainian checkpoints close to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and in Slavutych, home to many of Chernobyl’s nuclear workers. The International Atomic Energy Agency said Friday the attacks are jeopardizing the safety of the site and putting workers “at risk and preventing further rotation of personnel to and from the site.”

Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, was shrouded by foggy smoke from the near-constant shelling overnight. Several wounded soldiers arrived at a city hospital with bullet and shrapnel wounds.

Newly surfaced security camera footage showed an attack on a line of civilians outside a post office and shopping center in Kharkiv, the New York Times reported. The video “captures the impact of a projectile in a parking lot with dozens of civilians, who a local official said had been standing in line for humanitarian aid.”

Oleg Sinegubov, the head of the Kharkiv Regional State Administration, said at least six civilians had been killed and another 15 injured in the attack. A similar attack was launched against civilians last week standing in line for bread in the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv.

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Despite Russian advances, Ukrainians in some cities and towns already occupied by Russian forces have staged acts of rebellion.

In Kherson, which has been held by Russia since March 2, pictures were shared on social media of a huge blue and yellow Ukrainian flag unfurled from the roof of a municipal building.

“Have a nice day, my hero city!” Igor Kolykhaev, the city’s mayor, said in a Facebook post.

Despite Russian forces cracking down on dissent in Kherson, including kidnapping high-profile figures and firing into a crowd of protesters, many residents have pushed back.

Russia Ukraine War
In this satellite picture provided by Planet Labs PBC, fire and smoke are seen at Kherson International Airport and Air Base in Kherson, Ukraine, Tuesday. A suspected Ukrainian strike on the air base damaged Russian helicopters and vehicles Tuesday.

As the fighting continued across Ukraine, Putin said in a speech on state television that the West was trying to “cancel” Russia.

“Cancel culture has turned into the canceling of culture,” he said.

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As the Russian leader cast his country as a victim, his U.S. counterpart, President Joe Biden, prepared to meet with U.S. troops along NATO’s eastern flank in Poland.

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