Moscow said Thursday that it will open daily humanitarian corridors to evacuate civilians fleeing fighting in Ukraine to Russian territory, despite Kyiv insisting that no evacuation routes should lead to Russia.
"Humanitarian corridors towards the Russian Federation will now be opened, without any agreements, every day from 10:00 am," defence ministry official Mikhail Mizintsev was quoted as saying by Russian agencies. He said evacuation routes in other directions would proceed "in agreement with the Ukrainian side".
"We ask the International Committee of the Red Cross and the United Nations to work closely with Ukrainian authorities on the ground to inform the population about this Russian imitative," he said.
He also said the Russian army was working "closely with Ukrainian representatives" to open another three humanitarian corridors.
Mizintsev claimed that more than 2.5 million Ukrainians have asked to be evacuated to Russia.
He also claimed that Moscow had evacuated "more than 187,000" civilians to Russia, a number that could not be verified.
Mizintsev accused Ukrainian forces of blocking the evacuation of civilians in Mariupol, a southern port city besieged by Russian forces.
Three rounds of talks between Russian and Ukrainian negotiators have resulted in the opening of several humanitarian corridors to evacuate civilians from fighting.
Russian President Vladimir Putin sent in troops to Ukraine on February 24.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Around 50 Indians Want To End Employment With Russian Armed Forces: Centre Air India Operates Relief Flight To Fly Passengers Stranded In Russia Working With Trump "Would Be Hard" If He Wins, Says Zelensky "Jindal Group Executive Showed Porn, Groped Me On Flight": Woman To NDTV Bangladesh Imposes Curfew, Deploys Military As 105 Die In Protests Over 300 Indian Students Return Home As 105 Bangladeshis Killed In Protests Wife Among Two Jailed For Life For Man's Murder In Gurugram: Cops 1,100 Flights Cancelled In US As Microsoft Outage Disrupts Operations Elon Musk Congratulates PM Modi On Becoming Most Followed Leader On X Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world.