Ukrainian civilians hoping to flee cities have been told to head down evacuation routes leading to the countries they're fighting, with some corridors found to be covered in mines.
Over the weekend two ceasefire agreements broke down as Ukrainians were leaving, forcing many to return to homes as Russian shells began to rain down.
In one incident which has triggered outrage and widespread condemnation, three members of a fleeing family were killed in a strike as they made their way towards safety.
This morning, for a third time, humanitarian corridors have been reopened, potentially offering people a safe passage away from built-up areas.
According to various Russian state media outlets all citing Russia ’s defence ministry, the corridors are being set up at the personal request of French President Emmanuel Macron - the French government have denied this.
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They will be opened from the cities of Kyiv, Kharkiv, Mariupol and Sumy, and some appear to involve the evacuation of Ukrainian civilians to Russian cities and Belarus.
According to routes published by the RIA Novosti news agency, the corridor from Kyiv will lead to Belarus, which has allied with Russia and allowed troops to gather there prior to the invasion.
Civilians who are seeking to flee Kharkiv will only have one corridor leading to Russia.
A spokesperson for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called the routes "completely immoral" and said Russia was trying to "use people's suffering to create a television picture".
"They are citizens of Ukraine, they should have the right to evacuate to the territory of Ukraine," the spokesperson told Reuters.
Dominik Stillhart, director of operations for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), explained what has been going wrong with so-called humanitarian corridors.
He said both sides had been talking "for days", but problems remained confirming the detail of any ceasefire agreement - to allow civilians out of bombarded cities.
Stillhart said the challenge was to get the two parties to an agreement that is "concrete, actionable and precise".
He added that so far there had only been agreements "in principle", which had immediately broken down because they lacked precision, regarding routes and who can use them.
Illustrating his point, he said some ICRC staff had tried to get out of Mariupol along an agreed route on Sunday, but soon realised "the road indicated to them was actually mined".
"That is why it is so important that the two parties have a precise agreement for us then to be able to facilitate it on the ground."
The routes discussed today, which will take Ukrainians in the opposite direction to the vast majority of refugees who are fleeing west, have been criticised by the UK's Europe Minister James Cleverly.
He said Russia's latest offer of a ceasefire and an escape route for civilians was "cynical beyond belief".
Mr Cleverly told BBC Breakfast: "There is a view that Vladimir Putin believed there was a widespread desire of Ukrainians to be closer to Russia, to be more Russian.
"I think that has been proven to be a complete nonsense by the circumstances we are seeing.
"Providing evacuation routes into the arms of the country that is currently destroying yours is a nonsense."
He added that "ultimately the most humanitarian thing the Russians could do is end this completely illegal, completely unjustified invasion of Ukraine ".
A spokesman for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russia's proposal on humanitarian corridors taking refugees to Belarus or Russia was "completely immoral".
"This is a completely immoral story. People's suffering is used to create the desired television picture," the spokesman said.
"These are citizens of Ukraine, they should have the right to evacuate to the territory of Ukraine.
This weekend three members of the same family were among those killed in the attack by Vladimir Putin's forces on Irpin, a town 12 miles from Kyiv.
Shocking photos show children, parents and grandparents running for their lives from artillery fire.
The deaths have been condemned by Zelensky, who vowed revenge.
In a heartfelt plea his wife Olena pleaded with international media to "tell the terrible truth" that Putin's troops are killing children "consciously and cynically".
She asked Nato to implement a no-fly zone over Ukraine to "save our children, because tomorrow it will save yours".
She said: "The Russian occupiers are killing Ukrainian children. Consciously and cynically."
