As of March 7, the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine is worsening. Russian forces continue shelling cities while food, water, heat, and medicine become more scarce.
Jonathan Gimblett, a member of Ukraine’s legal team, claimed Russia has begun using “tactics reminiscent of medieval siege warfare, encircling cities, cutting off escape routes and pounding the civilian population with heavy ordnance.”
There are so far no immediate signs of an evacuation in one such encircled city, the southern port of Mariupol, which is becoming increasingly desperate for supplies, including antibiotics and painkillers.
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and member of Ukraine’s delegation in talks with Russia, said on March 3 the countries had tentatively agreed to set up safe corridors for civilians to evacuate and humanitarian aid to be delivered.
Humanitarian Corridor describes the safe corridors as a “legal program of transfer and integration in Europe of vulnerable refugees such as minors, disabled people, persons with serious illnesses, single parents with minor children, persons with mental disorders, [and] elderly people.”
Per Yahoo News, Podolyak said Russia and Ukraine had reached a preliminary agreement on March 3 to observe cease-fires in areas where safe corridors are established.
“The second round of negotiations is over,” Podolyak tweeted. “Unfortunately, the results Ukraine needs are not yet achieved. There is a solution only for the organization of humanitarian corridors.”
However, over the weekend, efforts to provide safe passage for civilians were thwarted by continued Russian bombings.
Delegations from Russia and Ukraine then met for a third time on March 7, with Podolyak reporting that little progress had been made on the issue of safe corridors, per The Wichita Eagle.
“There were some small positive shifts regarding logistics of humanitarian corridors,” said Podolyak, without elaboration.
The Russian Defense Ministry announced a new push on March 7, saying civilians would be allowed to leave Kyiv, Mariupol, and the cities of Kharkiv and Sumy.
President Zelenskyy once again asked on March 7 to establish a no-fly zone over Ukraine and “boycotts” of Russian oil, as Ukraine entered its twelfth straight day of being invaded.
Previously, Podolyak said that Russia had destroyed or damaged 202 schools, thirty-four hospitals, and more than 1,500 residential homes.
The country has continued to rain artillery down on Ukraine. A United States official told NBC News that Russian forces have fired more than 625 missiles at Ukrainian targets in the past few days.
On March 7, Ukrainian officials reported thirteen people were killed at a bread factory outside of Kyiv. Another five civilians and four soldiers were killed when Russian missiles hit an airport in the western part of the country.
The United Nations reported that, as of midnight on March 6, over four hundred civilians have been killed in Ukraine since the Russian invasion began. So far, the the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has recorded 1,207 civilian casualties in the country, with 406 killed and 801 injured.
The OHCHR states it is likely the “real figures are considerably higher.” The recorded casualties are likely to rise significantly as further reports are corroborated and as the conflict spreads.
On the morning of March 7, a senior Pentagon official told NBC that most of the Russian troops from along Ukraine’s border are now fighting inside the country. President Joe Biden previously stated he thought Russia had about 190,000 soldiers outside of Ukraine.
The defense official told NBC the U.S. plans to deploy 500 more troops, for a total of more than 100,000 American forces in Europe. More than a few thousand of these troops have been stationed in countries on NATO’s eastern flank, including Poland and Latvia.