Russia announces humanitarian ceasefire in Ukraine for Wednesday morning

Russian forces will stop firing from 10 a.m. Moscow time (0700 GMT) on Wednesday and are ready to provide humanitarian corridors so people can leave Kyiv and four other cities, Tass news agency cited a senior Russian official as saying on Tuesday.

Information about corridors from Kyiv, Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv and Mariupol will be sent to Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk, said Mikhail Mizintsev, head of the Russian National Defence Control Centre.

Vereshchuk said earlier on Tuesday that authorities had once again not been able to evacuate civilians from Mariupol.

"Given the deteriorating humanitarian situation ... and in order to ensure the safety of civilians and foreign citizens, Russia will observe a regime of silence from 10 am Moscow time on March 9 and is ready to provide humanitarian corridors," Tass cited Mizintsev as saying.

Mizintsev earlier said Ukrainian authorities had endorsed only one civilian evacuation route from areas affected by fighting out of 10 that were proposed, including five towards territory controlled by Kyiv.