Russian Shelling Halts Ukrainian Evacuation Effort
Ukraine managed to evacuate a convoy of civilians from the besieged northeastern city of Sumy on Tuesday, but renewed Russian shelling at the city’s exit forced the effort to be halted. Local authorities said the evacuation would resume later in the day.
Heavy fighting continued across the country, particularly in the southeastern city of Mariupol, where evacuation efforts failed for the fourth day in a row and residents have gone without power or water supply for over a week.
Combat went on around the strategic town of Izyum, eastern Ukraine, where Russian forces advanced as they attempted to encircle some of the country’s most hardened forces in the Donbas region. Ukraine continued to repel Russian attempts to break into the southeastern port city of Mykolaiv, the gateway to Odessa. Some 3,000 civilians managed to flee from the contested town of Irpin, northwest of the capital, Kyiv.
On day 13 of the Russian invasion, the toll exacted on Ukrainian civilians continued to grow. Food and other basic supplies were running short in besieged cities such as Sumy, Chernihiv and Mariupol. Some 700,000 people lacked electricity and heating across the country because of the destruction of civilian infrastructure. Ukraine’s second-largest city of Kharkiv has been hit heavily by Russian attacks, with much of its 19th-century downtown reduced to rubble.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/ukraine-russia-set-cease-fire-to-evacuate-besieged-city/ar-AAUM2IO