Evacuation of people from Ukrainian regions is ongoing, the State Emergency Situations Service said.
“The first convoy of about 20 buses with foreign students has set out in the Sumy region at 9:30 a.m. Three items of hardware and 23 employees of the State Emergency Situations Service are involved. The second convoy to depart at 1 p.m. is now being formed,” the State Emergency Situations Service said on its Telegram channel.
Evacuation of residents of the Irpin city in the Kyiv region to Kyiv is continuing, the service said. According to the service, over 150 people have already been evacuated.
Evacuation buses have departed from Zaporizhzhya to Mariupol, humanitarian cargo is on its way, it said.
The third round of Ukraine-Russia talks has produced small positive shifts in the matter of providing humanitarian corridors, an advisor of the head of Ukraine’s presidential office, said.
“Third round of talks is over. Small positive shifts to improve the logistics of humanitarian corridors,” Mykhailo Podolyak tweeted on Monday.
The corridors will be altered for a more efficient evacuation, he said.
As for the other issues, intense consultations continue, he said.
“From the standpoint of the key political trek – ceasefire, reconciliation, cessation of hostilities – intense consultations will continue. As of today, there is no result to make any considerable improvement in the situation. Still, yet again I want to stress: the consultations will continue and we will get the results,” Podolyak said.
Today’s talks lasted more than three hours in Belavezhskaya Pushcha, Brest region, Belarus, the same place where they were held the last time on March 3. The first round was held in Gomel region on February 28.
Some 146,000 foreign students, including 20,000 from India, have left Ukraine since the beginning of the full-scale aggression of the Russian Federation, spokesman for the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry Oleh Nikolenko said.
“Since the Russian invasion, Ukrainian government has helped 146,000 foreign citizens leave Ukraine, including 20,000 Indian students, evacuated from besieged cities,” Nikolenko tweeted.
“Russia must immediately cease fire in order to open humanitarian corridors for civilians in Sumy, Kharkiv, Mariupol,” the spokesman for the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said.
Advisor to the Head of the President’s Office Mykhailo Podoliak said the third round of talks between Ukraine and Russia has ended, there are some positive developments in improving the logistics of humanitarian corridors.
“The third round of negotiations has ended. There are some positive developments in improving the logistics of humanitarian corridors… Intensive consultations have continued on the basic political block of the settlement, along with a ceasefire and security guarantees,” he said on Twitter on Monday evening.
Chinese Red Cross Society will soon provide emergency humanitarian assistance to Ukraine.te Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi made a statement at a press conference at the fifth session of the 13th National People’s Congress (NPC), according to the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China.
Wang Yi said that China considers it important to overcome the crisis by strictly adhering to the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, respecting and safeguarding the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries, adhering to the principles of indivisibility of security, taking into account the reasonable security concerns of all sides involved, and settling disputes by exclusively peaceful means through dialogue and negotiations, to form a balanced, effective and sustainable European security mechanism for the sake of lasting peace in the region.
The Chinese minister noted the need for peace and negotiations. China has done some work in this regard and maintains close communication with all sides, he said.
Thus, on the second day after the start of the war, Chinese President Xi Jinping, during a phone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin, said that China “would like Russia and Ukraine to agree on peace as soon as possible.”
Wang Yi said that Beijing is ready to continue to play a constructive role in establishing peace and advancing negotiations, the minister also put forward six proposals to prevent a large humanitarian crisis in Ukraine.
According to them, firstly, it is necessary to make efforts to ensure that humanitarian operations comply with the principles of neutrality and impartiality, and also to avoid politicization of humanitarian issues. Secondly, it is necessary to pay attention to all the homeless, both in Ukraine and abroad, as well as to organize work on their accommodation at the proper level. Thirdly, it is necessary to ensure the protection of the civilian population and prevent a secondary humanitarian catastrophe in Ukraine. Fourth, efforts must be made to ensure the safe and unhindered operation of humanitarian assistance, including the provision of prompt, safe and unhindered humanitarian access. Fifth, it is necessary to ensure the safety of foreign citizens in Ukraine, to enable them to leave the country safely and to help them return to their homeland.
Sixth, it is necessary to support the coordinating role of the UN in providing humanitarian assistance to Ukraine and the work of the UN Crisis Coordinator for Ukraine.
The Ukrainian Red Cross Society has no right to independently organize humanitarian corridors for the removal of civilians, its press service told Interfax-Ukraine on Monday. “The Red Cross Society of Ukraine does not have an independent right to organize ‘green corridors’, but it helps local and state authorities in coordinating the evacuation of civilians,” Director General of the National Committee of the Red Cross Society of Ukraine Maksym Dotsenko, whose words are quoted in a press release, said.
He said that in some cases, the Red Cross Society of Ukraine helps local and state authorities in coordinating the evacuation of civilians, while the International Committee of the Red Cross, with the potential and appropriate contacts with all parties to the conflict, organizes “green corridors” for evacuation.
“The International Committee of the Red Cross is ready to fulfill its role of a neutral intermediary and provide support within its capabilities,” the statement said.
“The Red Cross Society of Ukraine, as an absolutely neutral humanitarian organization, also notes the need for a bilateral agreement between the parties to the armed conflict for the provision of humanitarian assistance and the removal of the civilian population through ‘green corridors “, the organization said.
