Evacuation routes from Mariupol and Volnovakha established. Russian troops may advance during ceasefire

Roman Petrenko, Yevhen Rudenko – Saturday, 5 March 2022, 10:41

Deputy Prime Minister and Head of the Ministry of Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories Iryna Vereschuk confirmed the evacuation routes from Mariupol and Volnovakha. The Armed Forces report that Russian troops may use the ceasefire to advance.

Source: Vereschuk during live TV broadcast

According to Vereschuk: "We have reached an agreement about creating a "humanitarian corridor" from 09:00 Kyiv time today, 5 March, from Volnovakha and Mariupol. The Red Cross mediated the negotiations with the Russian side to agree on the exact routes, which have now been confirmed.

As of now, two routes have been agreed.

The first route is Mariupol-Nikolske-Rozivka-Bilmak-Pology-Orihiv-Zaporizhzhya. We plan to evacuate over 200,000 people via this route.

The next route is Volnovakha-Valeryanivka-Novoandriyivka-Kyrylivka-Vugledar-Pokrovsk-Zaporizhzhya. We plan to evacuate over 15,000 people along this route. The Red Cross is the guarantor of the ceasefire. The Red Cross will be heading each evacuation convoy.

Local administrations are notifying the local populations that assembly points [to evacuate] are in the central squares of Volnovakha and Mariupol.

However, our troops report that Russian troops are using the ceasefire along the evacuation routes to advance. We are currently verifying this information. I want to address the Russian government. We made an agreement – with mediation from the Red Cross and based on international conventions – about a ceasefire. Russian troops must not advance in the area in question. We are using this evacuation route to evacuate women and children."