Ukraine demands immediate opening of humanitarian corridors

Ukraine's deputy prime minister said Tuesday that they raised the issue with the Russian side of the immediate opening of humanitarian corridors during the latest peace talks in Istanbul, Turkey.

Iryna Vereshchuk said in a daily briefing that the Ukrainian side conveyed to the Russian delegation a demand for the mandatory and urgent opening of humanitarian corridors to the cities of Mariupol, Kharkiv, Chernihiv and Kyiv.

She said they wanted a corridor to be opened from Berdyansk in the direction of the city of Vasylivka in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region.

"Evacuations will be carried out from the cities of Mariupol, Berdyansk, Melitopol and Enerhodar," she added.

While informing the public about the evacuations in the last 24 hours, Vereshchuk noted that they evacuated 936 people from Mariupol and 729 people from Zaporizhzhia.

Russia's war on Ukraine, which started on Feb. 24, has been met with international outrage, with the European Union, US and the UK, among others, implementing stringent economic penalties on Moscow.

Hundreds of global companies have also suspended operations in Russia.

At least 1,179 civilians have been killed in Ukraine and 1,860 injured, according to estimates by the UN, which noted that the true figure is likely far higher.

More than 3.9 million Ukrainians have also fled to several European countries, with millions more displaced inside the country, according to the UN refugee agency.