- Title: Mediators needed to make Ukraine humanitarian corridors safe - analyst
- Date: 8th March 2022
- Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (MARCH 8, 2022) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) ANALYST, HEAD OF THE UKRAINE FORUM AT CHATHAM HOUSE, ORYSIA LUTSEVYCH, SAYING: "For these corridors to be functional, they have to be agreed on very specific modalities. And we see that now United Nations Martin Griffiths' (team) is in Moscow trying to broker exactly the terms of these corridor
- Embargoed: 22nd March 2022 11:49
- Keywords: Chatham House Irpin Orysia Lutsevych Russia Sumy Ukraine Ukraine Forum analyst evacuations human corridors think tank
- Location: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM
- City: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM
- Country: UK
- Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace,Europe,Military Conflicts
- Reuters ID: LVA001304508032022RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:The head of the Ukraine Forum at London-based international affairs think tank Chatham House, Orysia Lutsevych, said on Tuesday (March 8) that mediators need to be part of negotiations on humanitarian corridors in Ukraine in order for civilians to be successfully evacuated from besieged areas.
"There is no third party involved to guarantee security, they are very fragile," she told Reuters, referring to several aborted efforts to evacuate civilians fleeing some of the fiercest fighting in Sumy, Irpin and Mariupol.
"For these corridors to be functional, they have to be agreed on very specific modalities," she said.
Ukrainian officials said on Tuesday that evacuations had begun again from the besieged city of Sumy, as well as from the town of Irpin on the outskirts of Kyiv.
Regional governor of Sumy Dmytro Zhyvytsky said the temporary ceasefire mostly held, allowing civilians including around 1,000 foreign students to leave.
But according to foreign ministry spokesperson Oleg Nikolenko, Russian forces shelled an evacuation route from the port city of Mariupol.
There were no immediate reports of any casualties and Nikolenko gave no other details. Russia did not immediately comment on Nikolenko's remarks.
Two million people - mostly women and children - have now fled Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian invasion on February 24, the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said.
Several hundred thousand people have already passed through Lviv, as they headed west seeking safety, according to mayor Andriy Sadoviy. Some 200,000 internally displaced persons were now staying in Lviv, and 50,000 were going through Lviv railway station daily.
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