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A bus driver waits for refugees from Mariupol near the Ukrainian-Russian border - the establishment of an evacuation corridor in Mariupol had recently failed
Photo: ARKADY BUDNITSKY / EPA
In Russia's war against Ukraine, hundreds of civilians were rescued in a coordinated evacuation from a contested city for the first time.
After a ceasefire, a convoy of vehicles carrying residents of Sumy in north-eastern Ukraine set off on Tuesday.
"The first convoy of 22 buses has already arrived in Poltava," a Kiev government official said on Tuesday evening, according to the AFP news agency.
Poltava is around 175 kilometers south of Sumy.
The people there are "safe," said the official.
In Sumy, the Russian armed forces announced in the morning that they would set up an official escape corridor.
The shelling had stopped.
According to the authorities, at least 21 people, including two children, died there in Russian attacks during the night.
According to information from Kyiv, a second group of 39 buses was on its way to Poltava in the evening.
Recently, the establishment of escape corridors had failed
Several attempts to set up an escape corridor for other besieged Ukrainian cities such as Mariupol or Wolnowacha have failed in recent days.
Both sides accused each other of sabotage.
Statements about Russian attacks on people fleeing are true from NATO's point of view.
"There are very credible reports of civilians being fired upon during evacuation," Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said.
According to a report by the TASS agency, Russia announced another ceasefire and the opening of escape routes from Kyiv, Mariupol, Sumy, Kharkiv and Chernihiv on Wednesday.
The Russian news agency quoted the head of the Russian Defense Control Center, Mikhail Mizintsev.
According to the UN, more than two million people have already fled abroad because of the war in Ukraine.
Most of them are women and children, as men of military age are not allowed to leave Ukraine.
ngo/dpa/afp
