Mar 8, 2022: Russia’s top diplomat has announced another ceasefire plan in Ukraine, saying Moscow would open humanitarian corridors to allow citizens in besieged Ukrainian cities to evacuate in any direction.

Vassily Nebenzia’s announcement at the UN Security Council on Monday came after Ukraine rejected Russia’s first plan, which proposed evacuation routes mostly to Russia and its ally Belarus.

Kyiv called the earlier plan “completely immoral.” Russia’s ambassador to the UN, Nebenzia, said Russian forces would observe a new ceasefire on Tuesday at 10:00 a.m. Moscow time (07:00 GMT) and open humanitarian corridors away from the cities of Kyiv, Chernivtsi, Sumy and Mariupol.

“Incidentally, this proposal makes no demands that citizens be sent necessarily to Russia – to Russian territories,” he said.

“There’s also evacuation offered towards Ukrainian cities to the west of Kyiv, and ultimately it will be the choice of the people themselves where they want to be evacuated to.”

But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of backtracking on previous agreements on escape routes, and trying to stop people, such as by planting explosives on the streets.

“There was an agreement on humanitarian corridors. Did that work? Russian tanks worked in its place, Russian Grads (multiple rocket launchers), Russian mines,” Zelensky said in a video posted on Telegram.

Accusing Moscow of “cynicism”, Zelensky also said Russian troops destroyed buses that were due to evacuate civilians from the combat zones.

“They ensure that a small corridor to the occupied territory is open for a few dozen people. Not so much towards Russia as towards the propagandists, directly towards the television cameras,” he said.

To date, the UN has had no involvement in the establishment of humanitarian corridors.

Martin Griffiths, the UN’s under-secretary for humanitarian affairs, said the global body urgently needed safe passage to deliver aid to the besieged cities.

“Civilians in places like Mariupol, Kharkiv, Melitopol and elsewhere desperately need aid, especially life-saving medical supplies,” Griffiths said, urging all sides to ensure that civilians, homes and infrastructure in Ukraine were safeguarded.

“This includes allowing safe passage for civilians to leave areas of active hostilities on a voluntary basis, in the direction they choose.”

More than 1.7 million Ukrainians have fled to Central Europe since Russia invaded their country on February 24.

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