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Russia’s Defense Ministry had announced it would enact a cease-fire for the southern cities of Mariupol and Volnovakha, allowing civilians to evacuate safely. An adviser to the Ukrainian presidential office said safe-passage corridors were being prepared for both cities.
However, just a few hours later, the Mariupol city council asked people who had assembled for the evacuation to disperse and take cover in shelters. In a Telegram message, the city council said shelling was continuing and that negotiations were underway to ensure a cease-fire and secure the corridor. It told residents it would update them via loudspeakers.
“The shelling stops for a little time, but then it continues,” Serhiy Orlov, Mariupol’s deputy mayor, told the BBC. He said Russian forces “continue to destroy Mariupol.”
Russia has denied breaking the cease-fire, accusing Ukraine of using civilians as “human shields.”
It remains unclear whether the evacuation of civilians in Mariupol would resume.
A shortage of necessities during more than a week of fighting is compounding what local leaders have called a humanitarian “catastrophe.” More than 1.2 million people have fled the fighting in Ukraine, and at least 331 civilians have been killed, according to U.N. agencies. But researchers caution that the actual toll is probably higher because it is difficult and often dangerous to count the dead during war.
In Mariupol, residents of the southern coastal city have experienced what Boichenko described as “merciless bombardment” in recent days.
“We are simply being destroyed,” he said Friday on his Telegram channel.
Britain’s Defense Ministry noted Saturday that Mariupol is one of four Ukrainian cities that are “highly likely” to have been encircled by Russian forces.
The mayor said this week that he and other civilians were “already shouting at all levels” for military assistance and an evacuation route. Officials in Mariupol, on the Sea of Azov, called for safe passage and a cease-fire to carry out the wounded and the dead, as well as to repair critical infrastructure. Boichenko, who stressed that an evacuation was possible only under a cease-fire, said Friday that it was not clear to him whether Russian forces would allow such an evacuation route for Mariupol.
“I do not know whether the Russian side has such a desire” to create a humanitarian corridor, he said. “Perhaps they want to wipe Mariupol off the face of the Earth.”
But after Russia’s Defense Ministry announced the cease-fire for Mariupol and Volnovakha, which is about 40 miles north of the port, local officials prepared to move out as many civilians as possible on Saturday.
The cease-fire, which was scheduled from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., would allow people to exit along a route stretching northwest from the coastal city, the council said in a Telegram post. Residents were prepared to leave in buses or private transport but could not deviate from the agreed route, and the evacuation would take place in stages over days “so that everyone can leave,” the message said.
“Take people with you. Fill the vehicles as much as possible,” local officials told drivers on Telegram.
Boichenko told residents that “under ruthless fire,” this was the only way to get them out safely.
“This is not an easy decision, but, as I have always said, Mariupol is not streets and houses. Mariupol is its inhabitants. It is you and me,” he wrote. “And our main task has always been and remains to protect people.”
But the fighting has continued, forcing evacuation efforts to be suspended. Boichenko said in a Telegram message that city leaders were looking at “all possible ways to get Mariupol out of the blockade.”
Orlov, the deputy mayor, told the BBC that Russian forces were still “bombing Mariupol” as of Saturday. The deputy mayor also claimed that local officials were given information that the evacuation route is not safe due to nearby fighting.
“That’s why people are very scared,” he said.
Francis reported from London and Bella from Washington.
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