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Ukraine's Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov (left): "There is no mercy, not even for children and women, for the wounded."
Photo: Maxim Guchek / dpa
Ukraine has again accused Russia of human rights violations with regard to the situation in the southern Ukrainian port of Mariupol.
The Ukrainian government is doing everything to enable escape corridors for an evacuation, Defense Minister Oleksiy Resnikov wrote on Monday.
But Russian troops tried to "suffocate" the city with a humanitarian crisis.
The strategically important Mariupol on the Sea of Azov is one of the most contested cities.
“The Russian terrorists are not keeping their word.
There is no mercy, not even for children and women, for the wounded.
They shoot at neighborhoods.
They are shooting at civilians during the evacuation,” Reznikov wrote.
Russia always emphasizes that it only targets military targets.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Wereshchuk confirmed a renewed Russian initiative to set up escape corridors to Russia.
A corresponding letter was received in Kyiv on Sunday, she said.
"This is not an acceptable way of opening humanitarian corridors," Vereshchuk said on Monday.
Ukrainians would not drive to Belarus from places north of Kyiv and then be flown to Russia.
Vereshchuk said she had suggested Russia open escape corridors inside Ukraine to the West.
The ceasefire should have come into effect at 10:00 a.m. local time (9:00 a.m. CET).
"We demand from the Russian Federation the opening of opportunities for humanitarian corridors through which (...) medicines and food can be brought," she said.
According to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, eight civilians were killed near the Kiev suburb of Irpin in an attempt to set up a "green corridor".
The mayor of Bucha, Anatoly Fedorchuk, was injured.
140,000 Ukrainians are returning to the country to fight
Defense Minister Reznikov said more than 140,000 Ukrainians have returned to the country so far, and tens of thousands have joined the Self-Defense Forces.
In addition, more than 20,000 foreign volunteers have already volunteered to fight against the Russian troops.
According to the Ukrainian General Staff, more than 11,000 Russian soldiers have been killed since the war began on February 24.
Almost 300 tanks and 1,000 other armored vehicles and more than 100 combat aircraft and helicopters were shot down.
On the night of Monday alone, Ukrainian troops destroyed around 30 Russian helicopters in an attack on an airfield near the southern Ukrainian city of Cherson, the command of the marine infantry said.
mfh/dpa