Russia said it has resumed “offensive actions” after announcing a ceasefire earlier on Saturday in the port towns of Mariupol and neighbouring Volnovakha.
“Due to the unwillingness of the Ukrainian side to influence nationalists or extend the regime of silence, offensive actions have been resumed,” defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said.
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Ukrainian officials had earlier blamed Russian forces of violating the ceasefire agreement after Putin’s regime announced it had opened humanitarian corridors in the two cities.
Russian defence ministry spokesman said “not a single civilian” was able to make way through the humanitarian corridors while alleging that “the population of these cities is held by nationalist formations as a human shield”.
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Russia blamed the Ukrainians of trying to “regroup”, earlier Ukraine’s minister Iryna Vereshchuk had said the government was looking into military reports of Russian troops using the time to advance towards Mariupol.
The Ukrainian government had said earlier that it planned to evacuate 15,000 people from Volnovakha and 200,000 from Mariupol. Ukrainian authorities however delayed evacuation efforts alleging that Russians were shelling areas in Mariupol.
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Reports said Russia has intensified its attack on Kyiv even as over 1.3 million people have fled to neighbouring European countries with Russian air raids being conducted in Bucha and Irpin allegedly on civilian targets.
The UN said at least 351 civilians have been killed in the last ten days amid Russian attacks while adding that the casualties could be “considerably higher”.
(With inputs from Agencies)
