Ukraine calls for humanitarian corridors in new talks with Russia

Borodyanka  — Talks between Ukraine and Russia got under way on Thursday, with  the Ukrainian delegation demanding an immediate ceasefire and humanitarian corridors to allow civilians to leave front line communities.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine entered its second week with  several Ukrainian cities surrounded and under bombardment.

Hundreds of Russian soldiers and Ukrainian civilians have been killed since President Vladimir Putin sent his troops over the border on February 24. Russia itself has been plunged into isolation never before experienced by an economy of such size.

The UN human rights office said on Thursday that it had confirmed 249 civilians have been killed and 553 injured in Ukraine during the first week of the conflict. The toll, through to midnight on Wednesday, rose from the 227 deaths and 525 injured in its previous report a day ago.

The UN said bombs, air strikes and  multilaunch rocket systems were responsible for most of the civilian casualties. It said more than 1-million refugees had fled in just seven days, one of the fastest exoduses in memory.

Despite an initial battle plan that Western countries said was aimed at swiftly toppling the Kyiv government it describes as dangerous nationalists who threaten its security, Russia has captured only one Ukrainian city so far — the southern Dnipro River port of Kherson, which its tanks entered on Wednesday.

With its main assault force halted for days on a highway north of Kyiv, Russia has shifted tactics, escalating its bombardment of major cities. Swathes of central Kharkiv, a city of 1.5-million people, have been blasted into rubble.

Mariupol, the main port of eastern Ukraine, has been surrounded under heavy bombardment, with no water or power. Officials say they cannot evacuate the wounded. The city council compared the situation to the World War 2 siege of Leningrad.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has stayed in Kyiv, releasing regular video updates to the nation. In his latest message, he said Ukrainian lines were holding. “We have nothing to lose but our own freedom,” he said.

Britain’s defence ministry said the main body of the huge Russian column advancing on Kyiv was still 30km from the city centre, held up by Ukrainian resistance, mechanical breakdown and congestion.

“The column has made little discernible progress in over three days,” it said in an intelligence update.

In Borodyanka, a small town 60km northwest of Kyiv where locals had repelled a Russian assault, burnt out hulks of destroyed Russian armour were scattered on a highway, surrounded by buildings blasted into ruins. Flames from one burning apartment building lit up the predawn sky.

“They started shooting from their APC towards the park in front of the post office,” a man recounted in the apartment where he was sheltering with his family, referring to a Russian armoured personnel carrier.

“Then those bastards started the tank and started shooting into the supermarket which was already burnt. It caught fire again.

“An old man ran outside like crazy, with big round eyes, and said 'give me a Molotov cocktail! I just set their APC on fire! Give me some petrol, we'll make a Molotov cocktail and burn the tank!'.”

At least nine people were killed and four wounded in a Russian air strike that hit two schools and private houses in the eastern Chernihiv region on Thursday, governor Viacheslav Chaus said in an online post.

Footage from a car dashboard camera, verified by Reuters, showed buildings in a residential area in Chernihiv hit by apparent missiles. The street was engulfed in a fireball and a huge cloud of black smoke rose into the sky.

Two cargo ships came under apparent attack at Ukrainian ports. Four crew members were missing after Estonian-owned ship exploded and sank off Odessa, and at least one crew member was killed in a blast on a Bangladeshi ship at Olvia. Ukraine is one of the world's biggest grain and food oil exporters from its Black Sea ports.

Reuters