Ukraine: Russia announced yet another temporary ceasefire and the establishment of safe corridors to allow civilians to flee the besieged Ukrainian cities of Kyiv, Mariupol, Kharkiv, and Sumy on Monday. However, Vladimir Putin’s forces continued to launch a few Ukrainian cities with rockets as fierce fights continued elsewhere. The two sides met for a third round of talks at the Belarus-Poland border as the war entered its 12th day. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy sought stricter international sanctions and trade embargo against Russia. Ukraine’s defence intelligence agency claimed that Russian Army Major General Vitaly Gerasimov was killed and other senior Russian Army officers “were also killed or wounded” near Kharkiv.
Meanwhile, the European Council said Ukraine’s application for an EU membership will be discussed soon. Russia declares ceasefire in the areas of Kyiv, Mariupol, Kharkiv, and Sumy from 10 AM Moscow time to allow for evacuations, while major clashes have been reported between Russian and Ukrainian forces in Luhansk. Ukraine has suffered about $10 billion in damage to infrastructure since Russia invaded the country, Infrastructure Minister Oleksander Kubrakov said on Tuesday.
The bodies of 13 civilians were recovered from the rubble after an airstrike on a bread factory in the Ukrainian town of Makarov in the Kyiv region. 05 people were rescued, it said, adding that in total around 30 people were believed to have been at the factory before the attack. The Ukraine crisis deepened on Tuesday as Russian forces intensified their shelling, leading to scarcity of food, water and medicine. Both sides held the third round of negotiations on Monday. The talks are reported to be mostly unfruitful, however, a top Ukrainian official claimed of making minor, unspecified progress toward establishing safe corridors for civilians.
The Russian side, without the participation of Kyiv, managed to withdraw 1,73,773 people from the zones of the military operation from the Luhansk and Donetsk regions to the Russian Federation. This included 44,187 children, the Russian Federation Humanitarian Staff said. The foreign ministers of Ukraine and Russia will meet in Turkey on March 10 for the fourth round of talks between the two nations. “Strikes on the military infrastructure of Ukraine are continuing. As many as 26 military objects were destroyed by the Russian Aerospace Forces aviation,” the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation has said.