Russia-Ukraine war: Shelling and evacuation efforts ongoing

Lviv: Efforts are ongoing to coordinate safe routes of escape for Ukrainian civilians out of besieged cities as the Russian invasion rounds out its second week.

In the time since Russian forces swept into the country, some 2 million people have fled Ukraine, nearly half of them children with most people fleeing to neighboring Poland. Russian troops have captured swaths of territory in the south, but have faced fierce Ukrainian resistance in other regions.

Ukrainian officials say pregnant women, women with children and others will be able to leave the city of Sumy on Wednesday through a humanitarian corridor Russia and Ukraine agreed to. Some 5,000 civilians, including many foreign students, were able to flee the city on Tuesday in buses marked with a red cross logo.

Life has become increasingly desperate in cities cut from electricity and facing food and medicine shortages. In the port city of Mariupol, which has been without water, heat, sanitary systems and phone service for several days, bodies laid uncollected in the streets.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy vowed that his country would fight Russia's invasion in its cities, fields and riverbanks.

ARE CIVILIANS BEING SAFELY EVACUATED?

Civilian evacuations are expected Wednesday during a 12-hour-long window from the northeastern border city of Sumy to the city of Poltava. Nearly two dozen buses carrying aid to the city will pick up people seeking to flee, Ukrainian officials say. A senior Ukrainian official says 5,000 people, including 1,700 foreign students were evacuated from Sumy on Tuesday.

Ukrainian officials say they will not accept Moscow's offer to establish safe corridors for civilians to head toward Russia, saying they will only agree to the safe exits leading westward.

Other evacuation efforts stalled or were thwarted by Russian shelling on Tuesday. The planned evacuation of civilians from Mariupol failed because Russian troops fired on a Ukrainian convoy carrying humanitarian cargo to the city on Tuesday, according to Ukraine's deputy prime minister. Russia insists it is ready to provide humanitarian corridors for civilians to leave five Ukrainian cities. The two sides blame one another for previous failed attempts.