Russian shelling preventing evacuation of civilians from Kyiv, Mariupol, Sumy, Kharkiv, Volnovakha and Mykolayiv, Ukraine foreign ministry says

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Reports are filtering in of a Russian attack on the city of Mykolaiv near the Black Sea in southern Ukraine.

Russian forces reportedly bombarded the city with artillery fire on Monday morning, just one day after Ukrainian troops pushed them from the city limits.

The Russian armed forces, following a request from French President Emmanuel Macron to Russian leader Vladimir Putin, declare a ceasefire regime from 10:00 and open humanitarian corridors, the Interdepartmental Coordination Headquarters for Humanitarian Response in Ukraine said in a statement. Thus, civilians will be able to leave Kyiv, Mariupol, Kharkov and Sumy.

At the same time, during the opening of humanitarian corridors, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation will carry out continuous objective monitoring of the evacuation, including with the use of UAVs. Therefore, we warn that all attempts by the Ukrainian side to once again deceive Russia and the entire civilised world in disrupting the humanitarian operation, allegedly through the fault of the Russian Federations this time around are useless and pointless.”