Invasion of Ukraine - First Ukrainian civilians evacuated by humanitarian corridor arrived safely
Steph Deschamps / March 9, 2022
The first civilians evacuated via humanitarian corridors from the town of Soumy, 350 km northeast of Kiev, have arrived safely in the center of the country, the deputy head of the Ukrainian presidential administration announced Tuesday.
Good news, civilians have been evacuated from Soumy. The first convoy of 22 buses has already arrived (in the city of) Poltava southeast of Kiev, Kyrylo Timoshenko announced on Telegram. 1,100 foreign students will continue to be evacuated by train to Lviv. Now everyone is safe, received food, he continued. A second column of 39 buses of civilians is on its way and is already in the Poltava region, he said. These are children, women, elderly people, foreign students. People will be able to stay in Poltava or continue their evacuation to Lviv, in the west, he wrote. I am glad that the work of the evacuation team at this stage has been very successful. Thanks to the people of Soumy for bravely fighting the enemy for 13 days, he concluded.
The Ukrainian authorities had announced the establishment of a humanitarian corridor Tuesday morning to evacuate civilians from Soumy, a city of more than 250,000 inhabitants located near the Russian border and the scene of violent fighting for several days. According to Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Verechtchuk, the Russian Defense Ministry had committed in a letter to the Red Cross to respect a humanitarian corridor to evacuate civilians on Tuesday, with a ceasefire from 09:00 to 21:00 local. At least 21 people including two children were killed Monday night in Russian air strikes against a residential area of Soumy.