Moscow condemned over ‘humanitarian corridors’ taking Ukrainians towards Russia
A woman with a child arrives at the border crossing after fleeing from the Ukraine in Medyka, Poland, on Monday. Picture: Markus Schreiber/AP
- A representative for Kyiv has urged the United Nations’ top court to order Russia to halt its devastating invasion of Ukraine, at a hearing snubbed by Russia amid its ongoing assault on its neighbour.
- Russia has told Ukraine it is ready to halt military operations "in a moment" if Kyiv meets a list of conditions, the Kremlin spokesman has said.
- The US is exploring legislation to further isolate Russia from the global economy, including banning the import of its oil and energy products into the country.
- Farmers will receive extra State payments to grow crops on their land under a series of extraordinary measures being considered by Government to counteract the economic and financial impact of the Ukrainian crisis.
- Fianna Fáil MEP Billy Kelleher has spoken of the emotion of witnessing thousands of women, children and elderly people trying to cross the Ukrainian border after visiting the war-torn country.
Russia has announced new "humanitarian corridors" to transport Ukrainians trapped under its bombardment — to Russia itself and its ally Belarus — a move immediately dismissed by Kyiv as an immoral stunt.
A spokesperson for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the move "completely immoral" and said Russia was trying to "use people's suffering to create a television picture".
"They are citizens of Ukraine, they should have the right to evacuate to the territory of Ukraine," the spokesperson told Reuters.
"This is one of the problems that is causing the humanitarian corridors to break down. They seem to agree to them, but they themselves want to supply humanitarian aid for a picture on TV, and want the corridors to lead in their direction."
The corridors were due to open at 10am Moscow time (7am GMT) from the capital Kyiv as well as the cities of Kharkiv, Mariupol and Sumy and are being set up at the personal request of French President Emmanuel Macron, the ministry said.
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said on Monday that there were nearly 300,000 civilians requiring evacuation from the southeastern port city of Mariupol, which is under assault from Russian forces.
About 2,000 civilians have so far been evacuated from the town of Irpin near the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, police said on Monday.
A police statement did not make clear over what period the evacuations had taken place. Ukrainians fleeing Irpin were caught in shelling by Russian forces on Sunday and forced to dive for cover, Reuters witnesses said.
Six humanitarian corridors were to be opened around Ukrainian cities.
However, even as Russia announced the ceasefire and the opening of humanitarian corridors in several areas, its armed forces continued to pummel Ukrainian cities, with multiple rocket launchers hitting residential buildings.
According to maps published by the RIA news agency, the corridor from Kyiv will lead to Russian ally Belarus, and civilians from Kharkiv will only have a corridor leading to Russia. Corridors from Mariupol and Sumy will lead both to other Ukrainian cities and to Russia.
Those who want to leave Kyiv will also be able to be airlifted to Russia, the ministry said, adding it would use drones to monitor the evacuation.
"Attempts by the Ukrainian side to deceive Russia and the whole civilised world ... are useless this time," the ministry said.
Presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovich described a “catastrophic” situation in the Kyiv suburbs of Bucha, Hostomel and Irpin, where efforts to evacuate residents on Sunday failed.
About eight civilians, including a family, were killed by Russian shelling in Irpin, according to Mayor Oleksander Markyshin.
Video footage showed a shell slamming into a city street, not far from a bridge used by people fleeing the fighting. A group of fighters could be seen trying to help the family. Mr Arestovich said the government was doing all it could to resume evacuations.
Ukrainian naval forces defending the Odessa region hit a Russian vessel in the Black Sea with gunfire, Ukraine's navy said on Monday.
"The enemy has retreated again," it said in a brief statement on Facebook. It was not immediately clear from the statement what type of vessel had been hit.
Russia has snubbed a hearing at the United Nations' top court into a legal bid by Kyiv to halt Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
A row of seats reserved for Russian lawyers at the International Court of Justice in The Hague was empty on Monday morning as the hearing opened.
The court's president, American judge Joan Donoghue, said Russia's ambassador to the Netherlands informed judges that "his government did not intend to participate in the oral proceedings".
Ukraine will ask the United Nations' top court to issue an emergency ruling requiring Russia to stop its invasion, arguing that Moscow's justification for the attack is based on a faulty interpretation of genocide law.
Although the court's rulings are binding and countries generally follow them, it has no direct means of enforcing them.
Ukraine's suit argues that the claim of genocide is untrue, and in any case does not provide legal justification for invasion.
The case it has lodged at the World Court, officially known as the International Court of Justice (ICJ), centres on the interpretation of a 1948 treaty on the prevention of genocide, signed by both countries.
Russian forces continued their offensive, opening fire on the city of Mykolaiv, 480 kilometres south of the capital of Kyiv, Ukraine’s General Staff said this morning. Rescuers said they were putting out fires in residential areas caused by rocket attacks.
Shelling also continued in the suburbs of Kyiv, including Irpin, which has been cut off from electricity, water and heating for three days.
Russia's invasion has been condemned around the world, sent more than 1.5 million Ukrainians fleeing abroad, and triggered sweeping Western-led sanctions aimed at crippling the Russian economy.
Oil prices soared to their highest levels since 2008 in Asian trade after the Biden administration said it was exploring banning imports of Russian oil. Russia provides 7% of global supply
Japan, which counts Russia as its fifth-biggest supplier of crude oil, is also in discussion with the United States and European countries about possibly banning Russian oil imports, Kyodo News reported on Monday.
Europe relies on Russia for crude oil and natural gas but has become more open to the idea of banning Russian products, a source familiar with the discussions told Reuters.
The general staff of Ukraine's armed forces said Russian forces were "beginning to accumulate resources for the storming of Kyiv", a city of 3 million, after days of slow progress in their main advance south from Belarus.
About 200,000 people remained trapped in the besieged Black Sea port of Mariupol, most sleeping underground to escape more than six days of shelling by Russian forces that has cut off food, water, power and heating, according to the Ukrainian authorities.
About half of the 400,000 people in the city were due to be evacuated on Sunday but that effort was aborted for a second day when a ceasefire plan collapsed as the sides accused each other of failing to stop shooting and shelling.
The civilian death toll from hostilities across Ukraine since Russia launched the invasion was 364, including more than 20 children, the United Nations said on Sunday, adding that hundreds were wounded.
A total of around 1.067 million Ukrainians have fled to Poland since the Russian invasion on February 24, including 142,300 on Sunday, the Polish Border Guard said on Monday.
"Traffic on the Polish-Ukrainian border is growing, today at 07.00 42,000 people arrived in Poland from Ukraine," Border Guard wrote on Twitter.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned Russians who committed atrocities against civilians they would face punishment.
"For you there will be no peaceful place on this earth, except for the grave," he said in a televised evening address.
As anti-war protests took place around the world, Ukraine renewed its appeal to the West to toughen sanctions and also requested more weapons, including Russian-made planes.
Police detained more than 4,300 people on Sunday at Russia-wide protests against President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine, according to an independent protest monitoring group.
Thousands of protesters chanted "No to war!" and "Shame on you!", according to videos posted on social media by opposition activists and bloggers.
Dozens of protesters in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg were shown being detained. One protester there was shown being beaten on the ground by police in riot gear. A mural in the city showing President Vladimir Putin was defaced.
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