Ukraine, Russia set cease-fire to evacuate besieged city as war toll grows

Ukraine agreed with Russia on a temporary cease-fire to evacuate civilians from the besieged northeastern city of Sumy, hours after heavy Russian bombardments killed at least nine residents there, as heavy fighting continued elsewhere across Ukraine. Russian forces advanced on the strategic town of Izyum, eastern Ukraine, 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. 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.

Some two million people have fled Ukraine since Russia invaded the country on Feb. 24, the United Nations refugee agency said on Tuesday. The agency estimates that a further one million have fled their homes and become internally displaced. In Sumy, a regional capital of 260,000 people, Russian aerial bombardments overnight hit several residential high-rises, killing seven adults and two children, said Gov. Dmytro Zhyvytski. He added that Ukrainian forces using Turkish-made drones were able to hit and destroy three Russian columns moving to attack the city. Ukraine Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said Tuesday that, in an agreement with Russia brokered by the International Committee of the Red Cross, civilians would be able to start leaving Sumy toward the city of Poltava in the morning, and that no combat activity would be conducted in the area until 9 p.m., offering the opportunity to resupply Sumy’s population with food and medicine. In the late morning, civilians in Sumy started boarding evacuation buses. Russia’s Defense Ministry said Tuesday it had opened what it said were humanitarian corridors out of Kyiv, Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Mariupol in addition to Sumy. Ukrainian officials said that only the one out of Sumy has been coordinated by both sides, for now.