Ukraine is urgently asking the Swiss-based International Committee of the Red Cross to help facilitate the creation of humanitarian corridors in cites and other settlements that are besieged by invading Russian forces. Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Olha Stefanishyna said this during a phone call with two of the highest ranking members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).
According to the Cabinet of Minister’s website, she said, “Ukraine has sent all the necessary requests to international organizations to create special corridors for the delivery of essentials and evacuation of civilians.” Her conversation coincided with the outcome of a second round of negotiations between the delegations of Ukraine and Russia on the fuller-scale invasion of the country that Moscow commenced on Feb. 24.
On March 3, the mid-level negotiating groups agreed on the need for humanitarian, or green corridors to be established where civilians are facing the relentless carnage of Russian bombardment. Their first round ended inconclusively on Feb. 28 in Belarus near the Polish border.
Second round of Ukraine-Russia talks held on March 3, 2022 in Belarus. (Credit: Public Domain)
Footage of the second meeting on Belarusian TV showed “what appeared as a restaurant called ‘Byelovejaya Pushta,’ which coincides with the place where the agreement to” dissolve the Soviet Union was signed in December 1991,” Euractiv reported.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was called a “dictator” recently by U.S. President Joe Biden, has called the implosion of the USSR as the “biggest geopolitical tragedy in history.” In a meeting with foreign journalists in Kyiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he doesn’t expect a breakthrough in discussions with Russia.
“The Russian side has long formulated answers to their questions,” he said, referring to Putin’s public intent to subjugate its former colony.
According to Stefanishyna, the following settlements and areas are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance:
Sumy Region (city of Sumy, Shostka, Romny, Konotop, Okhtyrka),
Chernihiv Region (eastern and northern parts of the region),
Kharkiv Region (entire region, except the south-eastern part),
Kyiv Region (Bucha, Irpin, Vyshhorod, Ivankiv, Vasylkiv, Borodyanka),
Mykolayiv Region (Bashtansky, Snihuriv, and Bereznehuvatsky directions),
Zaporizhzhia Region (Tokmatsky, Berdyansk, and Velykobilozersky directions),
Kherson Region (Chaplynka, Kalanchak, Henichesky and Novokakhovsky directions),
Luhansk and Donetsk Regions (Volnovakha district, Mariupol district), etc.
