Mariupol evacuations resume with Russia regrouping in Ukraine. Here’s what’s happening – National | Globalnews.ca

In the besieged southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol, attempts at delivering aid and evacuating civilians resumed Thursday with the nation readying for new Russian attacks.

A convoy of Ukrainian buses set out for the destroyed city to try to deliver humanitarian supplies and bring out civilians, said Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk and the Red Cross.

Meanwhile, the head of the NATO military alliance said its intelligence shows Russia does not appear to be scaling back its military operations in northern Ukraine, but is instead redeploying forces to the eastern Donbas region.

Here’s a round-up of what’s happening:

About 45 buses were on their way to Mariupol after the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) confirmed Russia had agreed to open a safe corridor.

In Geneva, the ICRC said its convoy was en route to the besieged city, but called on both sides to agree to the exact terms for the safe passage of civilians. The Red Cross said it would be ready to lead the operation on Friday if Ukraine and Russia did so.

Maxar satellite imagery shows before and after photos published on March 29 of a residential area in Mariupol damaged in ongoing fighting. – Satellite image ©2022 Maxar Technologies

“It’s desperately important that this operation takes place. The lives of tens of thousands of people in Mariupol depend on it,” said ICRC spokesperson Ewan Watson.

The Mariupol mayor said earlier this week roughly 170,000 residents were trapped there with no power and limited supplies. The city, which had a population of roughly 400,000 before the war began on Feb. 24, has been a strategic focus of Russia and has suffered near-constant bombardment.

Repeated attempts to organize safe corridors have failed, with each side blaming the other. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Thursday thousands of people have been killed in Mariupol.  Russia denies targeting civilians in its assault on Ukraine.

After promising to scale back operations near Kyiv and Chernihiv to “increase mutual trust and create conditions for further negotiations,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Russia is instead redeploying forces to the eastern Donbas region.

“Russia has repeatedly lied about its intentions,” he told reporters on Thursday, adding it must be judged on its actions alone, not the word of its leaders.

“According to our intelligence, Russian units are not withdrawing but repositioning. Russia is trying to regroup, resupply and reinforce its offensive in the Donbas region,” Stoltenberg said.

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Meanwhile, he said pressure is being kept up on Kyiv and other cities and “we can expect additional offensive actions bringing even more suffering.”

Late last week, Russia said it would shift its military focus to the eastern Donbas region, where fighting has been ongoing for eight years between Russian-backed rebels and Ukrainian armed forces.

Vladimir Putin said Thursday that conditions were not yet in place for a ceasefire in Ukraine, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi told reporters after his phone call with the Russian president.

Putin also said current Russian gas contracts remained in force, and that European firms will continue to pay in euros and dollars, rather than in rubles as the Kremlin has threatened, Draghi said.

“What I understood, but I may be wrong, is that the conversion of the payment … is an internal matter of the Russian Federation,” Draghi said.

However, Putin said on TV later he has signed a decree indicating foreign buyers must pay in rubles for Russian gas starting April 1, and contracts would be halted if these payments were not made.

“In order to purchase Russian natural gas, they must open ruble accounts in Russian banks. It is from these accounts that payments will be made for gas delivered starting from tomorrow,” Putin said.

Turkey’s top diplomat said the country is trying to bring the Ukrainian and Russian foreign ministers together again for talks.

A new meeting could happen within two weeks, Mevlut Cavusoglu said in an interview with Turkey’s A Haber channel.

However, Ukraine and Russia will resume talks by video on Friday, the head of Ukraine’s delegation said.

On Tuesday in Istanbul, the Ukrainian delegation proposed the country would declare itself neutral — dropping its bid to join NATO, as Moscow has long demanded — in return for security guarantees from a group of other nations, potentially including Canada.

Russian diplomats responded positively to Ukraine’s proposal, but the Kremlin shot down immediate hopes for peace on Wednesday.

— with files from The Associated Press and Reuters.