Ukraine: One Problem With Russia's Evacuation Routes

Delegations from Ukraine and Russia were to meet again on Monday for the third time, even as the Russian military offensive intensifies. In the meantime, Moscow declared another ceasefire—previous ones have fallen apart quickly—and announced six evacuation routes for residents of some of Ukraine's biggest cities, reports the Washington Post. On the surface, that may sound like hopeful news, but Ukraine has pointed out what it sees as a major problem with the routes: Most of them lead to Russia or to its close ally, Belarus, notes the AP.

A spokesman for Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky called the Russian move "completely immoral," per Reuters. His deputy prime minister, Irina Vereshchukk, called it “unacceptable," and UK Europe Minister James Cleverly put it this way: “Providing evacuation routes into the arms of the country that is currently destroying yours is a nonsense." Ukraine instead wants the routes to go to areas of western Ukraine where there is no shelling or to nations not allied with Moscow. Over the weekend, two attempted mass evacuations of the city of Mariupol were scrapped because ceasefires intended to ensure safe passage didn't hold. (More Russia-Ukraine war stories.)