Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vassily Nebenzia said Russian authorities proposed a ceasefire on Tuesday, CBS News’ Pamela Falk reported. Russia said that the proposed ceasefire, which will start at 10 am Moscow time, will allow the opening of humanitarian corridors to evacuate citizens from Kyiv, Chernigov, Sumy and Mariupol.
Nebenzia took the floor at the end of a UN Security Council meeting on the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine on Monday to make the announcement.
“This proposal has no demands on necessarily sending citizens to Russia, to Russian territory,” he said.
“There is also an offer of evacuation towards the Ukrainian cities to the west of Kyiv, and in the end it will be the choice of the people themselves where they want to be evacuated,” Nebenzia said.
But in Kyiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of violating previous humanitarian corridor agreements, saying the fleeing Ukrainians faced “Russian tanks, Russian Grad missiles and Russian mines.”
“They mined the roads that were the agreed-upon ways of getting food and medicine to the people, to the children, in Mariupol,” Zelensky said in what became the headline of a daily video near midnight.
During Monday’s talks ahead of Nebenzia’s speech, the Russians suggested evacuation routes leading to Russia and its ally Belarus, rather than the still peaceful regions of western Ukraine.
It’s just sarcasm,” Zelensky said. By opening a small corridor to Russia, he said, Moscow is only looking for a propaganda victory.
-CBS/The Associated Press