Moscow announced a new ceasefire Monday morning, and pledged safe passage to Ukrainian refugees traveling through a number of pre-determined humanitarian corridors.
The Russian Defense Ministry said Monday that it would observe a ceasefire starting at 10:00 Monday morning, and that it would ensure safe passage of civilians looking to flee the war-torn country, via a number of protected routes out of Kyiv, Kharkiv, Sumy, and Mariupol. It is unclear if the ceasefire applies beyond the protected passages for civilian refugees.
Ukraine decried the announcement, calling an “immoral” publicity stunt, noting that most of the protected passages for civilians to flee would lead them either to Russia, or Belarus, a Russian client state. Russia also offered to airlift civilians – into Russian territory, drawing ridicule from Kyiv.
Nearly all of the 1.5 million Ukrainian refugees who had left the country as of Sunday had fled via countries to Ukraine’s west, including Poland, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, and Moldova.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office excoriated the Russian announcement, calling it “completely immoral”, and accused Moscow of trying to "use people's suffering to create a television picture", Reuters reported.
"They are citizens of Ukraine, they should have the right to evacuate to the territory of Ukraine."
"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."