Kyiv: “Ukraine expects good news over the weekend regarding evacuations of people from the besieged southeastern city of Mariupol, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelesnskiy has said.
Meanwhile, in a pre-dawn video, Ukraine’s President claimed Russian forces are hiding mines in houses and dead bodies as they retreat from northern parts of Ukraine. He repeated warnings that Russia was preparing for strikes in the Donbas region and Kharkiv.
Ukraine’s deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk informed that seven humanitarian corridors are to be created on Saturday in the besieged regions. According to sources, the planned corridors include one for people evacuating by private transport from the city of Mariupol and by buses for Mariupol residents out of the city of Berdyansk.
According to the Ukrainian Prosecutor General, at least 158 children have been killed and more than 254 injured since the war began. Russian missiles hit two cities in central Ukraine, said Russian Defence Dept. Infrastructures and residential buildings in Poltava and Kremenchuk were sabotaged, local reporters added.
The ICC has said to re-attempt the evacuation mission to Mariupol after being denied permission on Friday.
The team had planned to lead a convoy of about 54 Ukrainian buses and vehicles out of the besieged city, where an estimated 160,000 people are trapped, but aborted the trip after conditions made it impossible to proceed, the aid organisation said.
The ICRC says its Mariupol operation has been approved by both sides, but major details were still being worked, out such as the exact timing and destination of the convoy, which would be an undetermined location in Ukraine.