Ukraine presidential adviser brands Russian attempt to capture Kyiv as 'suicide'
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A shopping centre in Kyiv after Russians shelled the Podilskyi district of the city on March 21, 2022.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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LVIV (REUTERS) - One of Russian's main priorities is to take control of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv but trying to do so is "suicide", Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said in a televised interview on Tuesday (March 22).
He also said active hostilities between Ukraine and Russia could end within two to three weeks.
With fighting continuing in Ukraine, the mayor of the northern city of Boryspil, where an international airport is situated, advised civilians on Tuesday to leave the city if they can because of fighting nearby.
Mayor Volodymyr Borysenko said in a video address that there was fighting in the Kyiv region where Boryspil is located.
"There is no need to be in the city now as there is already fighting going on in the area around it. I call on the civilian population to be smart, reach out to our call centre and leave town as soon as an opportunity arises," he said.
Ukraine said on Tuesday its efforts to evacuate civilians from besieged towns and cities were focused on the city of Mariupol but did not announce any new agreement with Russia to allow safe passage for trapped residents.
"We are focusing on evacuations from Mariupol," Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said.
She listed a number of places from where buses would try to evacuate civilians but Mariupol was not among them. She also made no mention of any new agreements with Russia on establishing "humanitarian corridors" to evacuate civilians.
The number of Ukrainians fleeing abroad is now 3,528,346, the United Nations' Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said on Tuesday, with more than two million crossing the border into Poland.
