Russia, Ukraine agree to ceasefire to let civilians leave 2 cities, but official says shelling continues

Russia and Ukraine have agreed to a temporary ceasefire in Ukraine to allow civilians to leave the cities of Mariupol and Volnovakha, however an official in Mariupol said the ceasefire was not being honored.

The fighting was due to stop at 10 a.m. Moscow time (7 a.m. London, 2 a.m. ET) Saturday.

However, Orlov Sergei, deputy mayor of Mariupol City Council, told the BBC that shelling in the city was continuing.

"At first our people [were] told that the shelling stopped for a little time, but then it continues and they continue to use hard artillery and rockets to bomb Mariupol," he said.

He added that there was also fighting along the proposed evacuation route.

The council had expected the ceasefire to last from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. local time. The city had planned to evacuate residents from Mariupol to Zaporizhzhia, a city to the west, on municipal buses.

"We decided to move our citizens back because it's not safe to be on the streets," Sergei added.

Earlier, a Ukrainian official tweeted that "humanitarian corridors" were being prepared.

"In Mariupol and Volnovakha, evacuation humanitarian corridors are being prepared for opening, and columns of those to be evacuated are being formed. The parties temporarily ceased fire in the area of ​​corridors," Mykhailo Podoliak, an advisor to the Ukrainian Presidential Office who took part in negotiations with Russian officials this week, said on Twitter.

However, the Russian Defense Ministry — in the same statement that outlined details of the ceasefire — said that its "offensive operations" continued elsewhere in the country.

Many of Ukraine's major cities, including the capital Kyiv, remain under attack from Russian forces invading from the north, east and south. However, a huge column of Russian military vehicles on its way to Kyiv appears to have stalled in recent days, amid unconfirmed reports of logistical problems and food and fuel shortages.

Mariupol and Volnovakha have born the brunt of some of the most intense fighting in Ukraine over recent days.

Their location — in Ukraine's extreme southeast corner, near the Russian border and Crimea — makes them strategic targets for the Moscow. If they fell to Russia, its troops could join forces with those in Crimea, a peninsula Moscow seized from Ukraine in 2014.

Mariupol is a port city, on the Sea of Azov.

Both cities are within Donetsk, one of two Ukrainian regions that Russian President Vladimir Putin's government recognized as independent just before his troops invaded Ukraine.

On Thursday, the BBC reported that Moscow had encouraged residents of Mariupol to begin leaving the city, but residents said they could not move because there had been no break in the shelling.

The situation on the ground in Ukraine is extremely volatile, and individual accounts are difficult or impossible to verify.