An estimated 1.7 million refugees have left Ukraine since the war began in Europe’s biggest refugee crisis since the second world war. Many millions more have been displaced internally or trapped in cities being brutally pounded by Russian bombardment. Housing blocks, town halls, schools, universities and hospitals have been hit by missile strikes and artillery fire, with some areas reduced to rubble.
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As Russian forces continued their brutal bombardment on the 12th day of the conflict, shelling of the six cities – which include Kyiv, Kharkiv and the southern port city of Mariupol – continued to prevent civilians from leaving. Multiple attempts to evacuate over the weekend were swiftly abandoned when civilians trying to reach safety came under fire.
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Kyiv has rejected an offer from Moscow to create “humanitarian corridors” allowing civilians to flee six heavily bombed Ukrainian cities after it emerged that most of the supposedly safe routes led directly to Russia or its ally, Belarus.
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Under the Russian offer, only two of the proposed corridors would end up in Ukrainian territory. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, accused his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, of “moral and political cynicism” and hypocrisy for making promises to protect civilians so they could flee only to Russia. “I do not know many Ukrainians who want to go to Russia,” he said, adding that full ceasefires to protect civilians were needed, not corridors.
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The World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed nine attacks on health care infrastructure in Ukraine since the start of the invasion on 24 February. The UN described a psychiatric hospital 60 km (40 miles) from Kyiv running out of water and medicine with 670 people trapped inside, including bedridden patients.
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Russia has made significant advances in southern Ukraine as it seeks to block access to the Sea of Azov and establish a land corridor to Crimea.
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The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said attempts over the weekend to evacuate some of the 200,000 refugees trying to escape the besieged southern city of Mariupol using a so-called refugee corridor were rapidly aborted as it became clear the road they were being directed towards had been mined.
Guardian
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