Russia has promised to allow five humanitarian corridors to be formed to let people flee major cities under attack by Vladimir Putin’s forces.
The firing of weapons in Ukraine will stop from 7am GMT (10am Moscow time) on Wednesday, Russian news agency Tass cited a senior Kremlin official as saying.
The corridors will lead out of Kyiv, Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, and Mariupol – said Mikhail Mizintsev, head of the Russian National Defence Control Centre.
He was quoted as saying: “Given the deteriorating humanitarian situation ... Russia will observe a regime of silence from 10 am Moscow time on March 9 and is ready to provide humanitarian corridors.”
It comes after several attempts to establish safe exits out of cities and towns under siege have failed.
Putin could ramp up the conflict in Ukraine as international sanctions are “unlikely” to deter him, the U.S. warned.
His troops’ failures, such as the unsuccessful attempts to capture Kyiv, are also unlikely to discourage him – Avril Haines, the U.S. Director of National Intelligence, told a House of Representatives hearing.
