Kyiv slams proposed civilian corridors to Russia, talks continue
The outcome of the third round of talks was not immediately available as the meeting was in progress at the time of writing this report
Kyiv slammed Moscow's proposal to evacuate civilians to Russia and Belarus as "immoral" and the efforts to set up safe passages for Ukrainians continued to be futile on Monday with both sides entering the third round of talks.
It is understood that the focus of the talks will once again be humanitarian corridors – to allow civilians to escape from military action as heavy Russian shelling of city centres continues in the south and the east of the country.
Following a failed attempt to establish humanitarian corridors on Saturday, Russia on Sunday floated a new proposal, which was branded "unacceptable" by Ukraine's deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereshchuk.
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Iryna dismissed Russia's six proposed corridors after it emerged that only two of them – from Sumy and Mariupol – involved evacuation routes that led to other parts of Ukraine, with all other routes leading directly to Russia or pro-Russian Belarus.
The outcome of the third round of talks was not immediately available as the meeting was in progress at the time of writing this report.
Meanwhile, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to hold direct talks with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in addition to ongoing negotiations, Reuters reports quoting a government source.
Modi, who spoke to Zelenskiy before a 50 minute-long call with Putin, was briefed by the Russian leader on the status of the negotiations between the two warring countries, the source said.
"Prime Minister Modi urged President Putin to hold direct talks with President Zelenskiy of Ukraine," the source said, declining to be named in line with government policy.
In his call with Zelenskiy, Modi expressed deep concern about the conflict and the humanitarian crisis it had caused, a government statement said.
Modi underlined the need to evacuate Indian students trapped in eastern Ukraine, including around 700 nationals in the city of Sumy, according to the source and the statement.
On Monday, Russia announced that humanitarian corridors would open in several Ukrainian cities including the capital, Kyiv, and second city, Kharkiv, a day after some of the hundreds of thousands of civilians trying to flee cities including Mariupol came under fire as they attempted to leave.
Moscow said the routes would open at 10am local time after a "personal request" from the French president, Emmanuel Macron, to Vladimir Putin. However, the Élysée Palace denied the French president had made such a request, reports The Guardian.
Russian forces continued their offensive on Monday, opening fire on the city of Mykolaiv, 300 miles (480km) south of Kyiv, Ukraine's general staff said, while shelling also continued in the suburbs of Kyiv, including Irpin, which has been cut off from electricity, water and heating for three days.
"Russia continues to carry out rocket, bomb and artillery strikes on the cities and settlements of Ukraine, focusing on the encirclement of Kyiv, Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Sumy and Mykolayiv," the general staff said, adding that the invaders "continue to use the airfield network of Belarus to carry out airstrikes on Ukraine".
While Russia's advance in the north on Kyiv has been stalled for days with an armoured column stretching for miles along a highway, it has made more progress in the south, pushing east and west along the Black and Azov Sea coasts.
Ukraine said that its forces had retaken control of the town of Chuhuiv in the northeast, site of heavy fighting for days, and of the strategic Mykolayiv airport in the south. Neither claim could immediately be verified.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Reuters on Monday Moscow would halt operations if Ukraine ceased fighting, amended its constitution to declare neutrality, and recognised Russia's annexation of Crimea and the independence of regions held by Russian-backed separatists.
As the war entered its 12th day Moscow acknowledged nearly 500 deaths among its soldiers, but Western countries say the true number is much higher and Ukraine says it is many thousands. Death tolls cannot be verified, but footage widely filmed across Ukraine shows burnt-out wreckage of Russian armoured columns and Ukrainian cities reduced to rubble by Russian strikes.
