Agreement for Humanitarian Corridor in Mariupol, Moscow called Dialogue with Kyiv “Circus”

Ukrainian authorities say they have agreed with Russia to create a humanitarian corridor to evacuate civilians from the besieged port city of Mariupol. This is the first such agreement since Saturday, AFP quoted Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshchuk as saying.

“We managed to reach a preliminary agreement with the Russians on a humanitarian corridor for women, children and the elderly,” Vereshchuk posted on Telegram. The corridor will lead to the southern city of Zaporizhzhia.

Ukraine hopes to send 90 buses to evacuate about 6,000 women, children and the elderly, the city's mayor, Vadim Boychenko, was quoted as saying by Reuters. According to him, about 100,000 civilians remain in Mariupol, and tens of thousands have died during the Russian siege.

Meanwhile, separatist authorities in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic said more than 140 civilians and five Ukrainian soldiers had been evacuated from the besieged port city. This is happening as Moscow intensifies its offensive in the eastern part of the country.

"Five servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine laid down their arms and voluntarily left the territory of the Azovstal plant," the separatist authorities in the DPR posted on Telegram.

A total of 300,000 Ukrainians have been evacuated through humanitarian corridors since the start of the war on February 24, according to Ukrainian authorities.

Moscow called the dialogue with Kyiv a "circus", no longer trusting the negotiators

Russia considers the dialogue with Ukraine for peace a "circus", said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.

She accused the "Kyiv regime" of "the man who calls himself President of Ukraine" (referring to Volodymyr Zelensky) that his team "sometimes comes, sometimes doesn't come, sometimes participates, sometimes doesn't participate" in the dialogue.

This came a day after Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said the outcome of the war would be decided not on the negotiating table but on the battlefield.

The West supports Ukraine with weapons against the backdrop of massive battles in Donbas, here are the highlights of events in Ukraine over the past 24 hours.

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