The United Nations has called for civilians stuck in conflict zones in Ukraine to be allowed safe passage in any direction they choose, as Russia said it would establish humanitarian corridors out of several Ukrainian cities under siege.
A third round of talks between Russia and Ukraine ended with a top Ukrainian official saying there had been minor, unspecified progress toward establishing safe corridors that would allow civilians to escape the fighting.
After two failed attempts over the weekend, Russia announced yet another limited ceasefire that would allow desperate civilians to flee through humanitarian corridors.
Russia's chief negotiator said he expected those to start operating on Tuesday (local time).
Russian state media outlet RIA reported that Moscow would introduce humanitarian corridors from Kyiv, Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Sumy and Mariupol.
But that remained to be seen, given the failure of previous attempts to lead civilians to safety amid the biggest ground war in Europe since World War II.
Russian President Vladimir Putin's forces continued to pummel cities with rockets, and fierce fighting raged in places.
Humanitarian corridors arise when a population is caught in a war zone, particularly when a city or town is under siege.
The idea is that hostilities are halted for a certain time to allow civilians who need to flee to do so along designated routes, or to allow urgent humanitarian aid to enter for civilians who remain.
At the UN Security Council, envoys from many countries including the United States, Ireland and France sounded the alarm over the rapidly rising number of civilian casualties, including women and children and displaced people.
"The parties must take constant care to spare civilians and civilian homes and infrastructure in their military operations," UN aid chief Martin Griffiths told the special Security Council meeting, called to address the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Ukraine.
"This includes allowing safe passage for civilians to leave areas of active hostilities on a voluntary basis, in the direction they choose."
Ukrainian cities under attack desperately needed aid and medical supplies, Mr Griffiths added. These include Kharkiv, Mariupol and Melitopol.
In one of the most desperate cities, the encircled southern port of Mariupol, an estimated 200,000 people — nearly half the population of 430,000 — were hoping to flee.
Police moved through the city, advising people to remain in shelters until they heard official messages broadcast over loudspeakers to evacuate.
Hospitals in Mariupol are facing severe shortages of antibiotics and painkillers, and doctors performed some emergency procedures without them.
Red Cross officials waited to hear when a corridor would be established.
Red Cross says some evacuation routes mined
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said instead of an agreement on humanitarian corridors, what Ukraine got on Monday was "Russian tanks, Russian Grad rockets, Russian mines".
"They even mined the roads that were the agreed routes for taking food and medicine to the people, to the children, of Mariupol," Mr Zelenskyy said in what has become a daily video address.
Dominik Stillhart, director of operations for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), told the BBC he had been speaking "to both parties" about humanitarian corridors "for days on end" to establish a sufficiently safe route.
Mr Stillhart said a team of ICRC officials was in the city of Mariupol ready to help evacuate civilians on Sunday, but: "As soon as they reached the first checkpoint they realised the road indicated to them was actually mined, and therefore the agreement couldn't be implemented.
"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."
Russia's defence ministry earlier said it would open six humanitarian corridors in Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, but Kyiv rejected the proposal as the evacuation routes led into Russian or Belarusian territory.
Russia continued to pound some cities with rockets even after the announcement of corridors.
According to maps published by Russian state news agency RIA, the corridor from Kyiv would lead to Belarus, while civilians from Kharkiv would be permitted to go only to Russia.
Russia would also mount an airlift to take Ukrainians from Kyiv to Russia, the ministry said.
A spokesperson for Mr Zelenskyy called the move "completely immoral".
"They are citizens of Ukraine, they should have the right to evacuate to the territory of Ukraine," the spokesperson said.
Civilians should be protected wherever they are, rights groups say
The US Ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said Russia needed to provide a "clear, public and unequivocal commitment" to facilitating "immediate, unhindered humanitarian access" for aid agencies.
Ms Thomas-Greenfield said Ukrainian cities were under siege and under "relentless" Russian shelling, with hospitals running out of supplies, food dwindling and civilian casualties mounting.
The US has called Russia's failure to maintain humanitarian corridors "pure evil".
Russia's growing reliance on longer-range strikes on Ukrainian targets is increasing the number of civilian casualties and damage to civilian infrastructure, the Pentagon said.
Vassily Nebenzia, Russian envoy to UN, accused Ukrainian authorities of not allowing civilians to flee.
Human rights groups and humanitarian agencies point out that under international law, every effort should be made to ensure civilians' safety no matter where they are.
The tactic of siege-plus-humanitarian corridor, they say, essentially gives residents a brutal choice between fleeing into the arms of their attackers or dying under bombardment.
They said the offer also gives an illusion of legitimacy to the mass slaughter of civilians who remain behind once the siege resumes in full force.
"It is not like Russia can create a humanitarian corridor for two days and then say, 'Well, we've done our job, now we can destroy everything,'" said Sara Kayyali, Syria researcher for Human Rights Watch.
More than 1.7 million people have fled Ukraine, many Western companies have pulled out and the West has imposed harsh sanctions on Russian banks and Mr Putin.
ABC/wires
