Mar 10, 2022: According to a report by AFP, at least 35,000 civilians were evacuated from besieged Ukrainian cities on Wednesday according to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

In a video address late Wednesday, the Ukrainian leader said three humanitarian corridors had allowed residents to leave the area around Sumi, Enurhoder and Kyiv. He said he hoped the evacuation process would continue on Thursday and that three more routes would be opened from the cities of Mariupol, Volonokha in the southeast and Ezeem in eastern Ukraine.

The evacuation came as Moscow and Kyiv agreed on Wednesday to open more corridors, giving hope to frightened civilians trapped in the bombed cities. More than 5,000 people were evacuated the day before the 250,000-strong city of Sumi, near the Russian border, was the scene of intense fighting.

But attempts to evacuate the port city of Mariupol, which has been under siege by Russia for several days, have failed on several occasions, with both Kyiv and Moscow blaming each other.

On Wednesday, a Russian attack destroyed a children’s hospital in the city, renewing global outrage following an attack on its former Soviet neighbor in Moscow two weeks ago. The mayor of Mariupol said more than 1,200 civilians had been killed in the siege, which lasted more than a week.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates the total number of refugees at 2.1 to 2.2 million.

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