Kyiv, Apr 18: Ukraine's government has halted humanitarian evacuations for the second day, saying Russian forces were targeting civilian evacuation corridors.
Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said Monday that Russia was shelling and blocking the humanitarian evacuation routes. The humanitarian evacuations have been repeatedly paused since the war began after civilian convoys came under shelling.
According to Vereshchuk, the government had been negotiating passage from Mariupol and Berdyansk, among other towns, as well as from the Luhansk region. The Luhansk government said four civilians trying to flee the region were shot to death by Russian forces.
Separately, shelling in a residential area in the eastern city of Kharkiv on Monday killed at least three people and injured three others, according to AP journalists on the scene.
One of the dead was a woman who appeared to have been going to collect water in the rain. She was found lying bloodied with a water canister and umbrella near her body.
