Ukraine and Russia discussed humanitarian corridors, but attacks continue to rage

During the 12th day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the third round of negotiations took place between delegations from both countries, achieving, according to the advisor to the Office of the Ukrainian President, Mykhailo Podolyak, small advances in improving the logistics of the corridors humanitarian aid to evacuate the civilian population.

He added that “intense consultations” on a ceasefire and security guarantees continued.

The new meeting between the two parties took place in Belovezhskaya Pushcha, in the Belarusian region of Brest, near the Polish border, where the second meeting had taken place on March 3, recalls EFE.

This Monday, for the third consecutive time, the planned evacuations failed due to the violation of the humanitarian ceasefire announced by Russia, for whose breach both parties blamed each other again.

The Russian chief negotiator, Vladimir Medinski, affirmed, in turn, that Moscow expects the humanitarian corridors to start operating on Tuesday.

“We said it clearly. We hope that tomorrow these corridors will finally start working. The Ukrainian side has given us guarantees of this, ”he said, according to the agency. interface.

But what does international politics mean when it speaks of humanitarian corridors?

According to the UN, they are demilitarized zones limited in time and space, through which people are evacuated to other areas or regions, food or medical aid is delivered in the agreed areas. They have been used since the first decades of the 20th century, D.W..

They are usually used when there are populations under siege or under attack, and it is organized by some mechanism or organization such as the UN, always with the consent of the parties that are in conflict, although on this occasion Ukraine and Russia negotiate and configure them directly.

In addition, it must be determined who is going to use them, in the Ukrainian situation it would be to remove civilians from the areas that are in the middle of the armed conflict, although this continues to spread.

Russia announced this morning a temporary ceasefire starting at 10:00 to open humanitarian corridors in Kiev, Mariupol, Jaarkov and Sumy with six routes, of which four would end in Russian cities such as Rostov-on-Don (southern route) and Belgorod (to the east).

The evacuation plan for Kiev also includes passing through the territory of Belarus (Gomel and Gden) with subsequent air transport to Russia.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for the Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories, Iryna Vereshchuk, said on Monday that these routes are “absurd, cynical and unacceptable.”

The head of Russia’s National Center for Defense Control, Colonel General Mikhail Mizintsev, in turn stated that the Russian side observed the evacuation routes with drones and accused Ukraine of “not having carried out a single step”. practical for the preparation of humanitarian convoys”, according to the agency interface.

“No one reached the open humanitarian corridors,” he said, again accusing the Ukrainian “nationalists” of having prevented the evacuation.

Medinski also noted that talks with the Ukrainian delegation on an agreement to end what Russia calls a “special military operation” in the neighboring country will continue, although Moscow’s expectations have not materialized.

“Our expectations from the talks did not materialize, but we hope that next time we will be able to make more significant progress. Talks will continue,” he said, according to the Russian agency. TASS.

While they closed this small agreement, the Russian troops strongly attacked the south of Ukraine, exactly the town of Mikolaiv, located between the taken Kherson and Odessa, still in the hands of the Government of Ukraine, one of the main cities in the south of the country.

Mikolaiv has about 480,000 inhabitants and one of the three largest ports in the state, according to the daily The country. This city and Odessa hold an outlet to the sea for the Ukrainians, the east coast Russian forces have gained control of.

The Kremiln spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, spoke for the first time on Monday about three conditions that his country would have to stop the offensive: that Ukraine declares itself a neutral country by Constitution, that it recognizes Crimea as part of Russian territory and the independence of the Donetsk and Lugansk republics.

Something that clashes with what was said in the past by the Ukrainian president, who went so far as to affirm that he would not negotiate with the sovereignty of his territory. So the fighting is not expected to end soon.

Meanwhile, more than 1.7 million people have fled Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion on February 24, according to the latest UN figures released on Monday.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) counts 1,735,068 refugees who fled the war in Ukraine, after an increase of about 200,000 since Sunday.

The UN authorities expect the flow to increase, especially in the event of the opening of humanitarian corridors that allow civilians to leave the big cities, it says AFP.

The situation has led the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell – who thinks that the number of refugees could reach five million – to ask the Chinese Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, that his country support the establishment of humanitarian corridors in Ukraine to allow the evacuation of the civilian population in the midst of the invasion carried out by Russia.

Borrell spoke by phone with Wang and, in that conversation, both agreed that “a large-scale humanitarian crisis” in Ukraine must be avoided, according to a statement released by the European External Action Service (EEAS) after the conversation, the second that maintained since the beginning of the “unprovoked and unjustified” military invasion of Russia since February 24, the EU diplomatic service pointed out.

The Spanish politician added that “China can play a role” in the conflict, although “not as a mediator”, because it is closer to Russia. But the fact that he did not vote against the condemnation of Moscow in the UN General Assembly resolution on the invasion of Ukraine, but rather abstained, shows that “there is not a total alignment,” Borrell said.

This Tuesday, French President Emmanuel Macron is also scheduled to speak by phone with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, about the situation.

Ecuador asks Russia for a corridor

Ecuador is waiting for Russia to authorize the establishment of a humanitarian corridor to evacuate around a hundred Ecuadorians who are in conflict zones in Ukraine, Deputy Foreign Minister César Montaño said on Monday.

“We hope that the Russian government will give way to humanitarian corridors so that not only compatriots can be evacuated, but also some other citizens of other countries who are trapped in conflict zones,” he told the press.

He assured that the foreign minister, Juan Carlos Holguín, “has insisted with the Russian government that it give way to this humanitarian corridor.”

Regarding the student Diego Moncayo who is near the Russian border, the deputy minister commented that “perhaps the most advisable thing is to evacuate him through Russia.” (I)