Ukraine unable to get supplies into besieged Mariupol despite Russia corridor promise

KYIV (REUTERS, AFP) - An aide to the mayor of Mariupol said on Friday (April 1) the besieged southern Ukrainian city remained closed for anyone trying to enter and was "very dangerous" for anyone trying to leave.

Mr Petro Andryushchenko said Russian forces had since Thursday been preventing even the smallest amount of humanitarian supplies reaching trapped residents, making clear a planned "humanitarian corridor" had not been opened.

Tens of thousands of civilians have been trapped for weeks with scant food, water and other supplies in the city that was once home to 400,000 people but has been devastated by Russian bombardment.

"The city remains closed to entry and very dangerous to exit with personal transport," he said on the Telegram messaging app.

"In addition, since yesterday the occupiers have categorically not allowed any humanitarian aid – even in small quantities – into the city." 

A convoy of buses that set out for Mariupol on Thursday did not reach the city, Ukrainian officials said on Thursday evening.

Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk wrote in an online post late on Thursday that new efforts would be made "to push through a humanitarian corridor to Mariupol so as not to leave our people on their own". 

In a Facebook post, the general staff said on Thursday Ukrainian forces were still holding Mariupol, a gateway to the Black Sea which links a strategic corridor between Russia-backed separatist forces in eastern Ukraine and the Russian-annexed Crimea peninsula.

The Mariupol mayor’s office estimates 5,000 civilians have been killed in the siege of the city. The mayor put the number of civilians in the city earlier this week at up to 170,000.

Russia earlier said a humanitarian corridor would be opened on Friday morning to allow civilians out of the besieged port city of Mariupol in south-eastern Ukraine.

"The Russian armed forces will reopen a humanitarian corridor from Mariupol to Zaporizhzhia on April 1 from 10am", or 3pm Singapore time, the Russian defence ministry said.

The decision came after "a personal request from the French president (Emmanuel Macron) and German chancellor (Olaf Scholz) to Russian President Vladimir Putin", it said in a statement.

Zaporizhzhia lies some 220km to the north-west of the port city on the Sea of Azov.

"To guarantee the success of this humanitarian operation, it has been suggested it be conducted with the direct participation of the representatives of the UNHCR and the International Committee of the Red Cross," it added, referring first to the UN refugee agency.

The ICRC said earlier it was preparing to facilitate the safe passage of civilians from Mariupol.

Ukraine said it was sending dozens of buses to evacuate civilians from Mariupol after a Russian ceasefire announcement.

But at least an hour after the scheduled corridor was meant to be opened, the Red Cross said it was “not yet clear” that the evacuation would go ahead as planned.

“We remain hopeful, we are in action moving towards Mariupol... but it’s not yet clear that this will happen today,” Ewan Watson, a spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross, told reporters in Geneva, as an ICRC team of three cars and nine staff headed towards the city.

Aid groups say tens of thousands of civilians are trapped in the city with little food, water or medicine, but previous attempts to agree on a humanitarian corridor have failed, despite international pressure.

Both sides accuse each other of impeding the evacuations.

The governor of the Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine said separately that he hoped five safe corridors would be opened on Friday to towns and cities in his region.