Berlin, March 30, (dpa/GNA) – The Ukrainian government is hoping for the establishment of three humanitarian corridors, to evacuate civilians in the country’s southeast on Wednesday.
Civilian escape routes are to be set up in the cities of Berdyansk on the Sea of Azov and in Melitopol, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk announced.
Buses would travel to the embattled cities. Privately owned cars could join the bus convoy. Aid supplies would also be brought to the cities.
In addition, a corridor for the escape of civilians from the nuclear power plant city of Enerhodar to Zaporizhzhya was agreed upon.
According to Vereshchuk, proposals for humanitarian corridors for 97 settlements in nine regions were handed over to the Russian delegation at peace talks in Istanbul the day before.
Almost five weeks ago, Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine.
It is widely understood that Russia miscalculated the strength of the Ukrainian resistance, and Russian military gains have been much more halting than expected.
According to British intelligence, Russian units suffering heavy losses have been forced to retreat to Russia and allied Belarus this week in order to reorganize and resupply.
“Such activity is placing further pressure on Russia’s already strained logistics and demonstrates the difficulties Russia is having reorganizing its units,” British officials said in a memo posted on Twitter.
It added that Russia was likely to compensate for its reduced ground capacity with “mass artillery and missile strikes.”
Also on Wednesday, the Russian military claimed to have destroyed two ammunition depots in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk with ground-to-ground missiles.
The Ukrainian army had stored ammunition for its rocket artillery in the village of Kamyanka, a Defence Ministry spokesperson said in Moscow, adding that a total of 64 Ukrainian military objects were destroyed within 24 hours.
Spokesperson Igor Konashenkov said Ukrainian special forces in the Mykolaiv region had been targeted. The information could not be independently verified.
Major General Konashenkov said Ukraine had also lost three S-300 and Buk anti-aircraft systems and that Russian missiles fired from aircraft had hit fuel depots near Starokostyantyniv and Khmelnytskyi in western Ukraine.
This coincides with Ukrainian reports of missile attacks in the region.
According to UN figures, more than 1,100 civilians have been killed so far – the actual number is probably much higher.
More than 4 million people have fled Ukraine in response to the Russian invasion that started on February 24, according to the UN refugee agency.
The official number is 4.02 million, according to the High Commissioner for Refugees. Additionally, about 6.5 million are believed to be internally displaced.
The highest concentration is in Poland, which has seen about 2.34 million arrivals, followed by 609,000 in Romania and hundreds of thousands in Germany, Hungary, Moldova and Slovakia, respectively.
GNA