Russian attacks halt plans to evacuate Ukrainian civilians

A factory and a store are burning after been bombarded in Irpin, in the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, on Sunday March 6 2022 (Emilio Morenatti/AP)

A second attempt to evacuate civilians from a besieged city in southern Ukraine collapsed amid renewed Russian shelling, while Russian President Vladimir Putin turned the blame for the war back on Ukraine and said Moscow’s invasion could be halted “only if Kyiv ceases hostilities”.

Food, water, medicine and almost all other supplies were in desperately short supply in the port city of Mariupol on Sunday, where Russian and Ukrainian forces had agreed to an 11-hour cease-fire that would allow civilians and the wounded to be evacuated. But Russian attacks quickly closed the humanitarian corridor, Ukrainian officials said.