MOSCOW, March 8. /TASS/. Russia declares a pause in fighting on Wednesday from 10:00 Moscow time and remains ready to arrange humanitarian corridors from Kiev, Chernigov, Sumy, Kharkov and Mariupol, according to the statement signed on Tuesday by Mikhail Mizintsev, the chief of the Russian National Defense Management Center and the chief of the Russian interdepartmental center for humanitarian response in Ukraine.
"Notwithstanding Ukraine’s permanent disruptions to open humanitarian corridors, but taking into account the worsening humanitarian situation caused by nationalists’ atrocities and lawlessness, and in order to ensure the safety of civilians and foreign citizens, the Russian Federation declares the regime of silence and is ready to provide humanitarian corridors from 10:00 Moscow time on March 9, 2022," the statement said.
Information on humanitarian corridors from Kiev, Chernigov, Sumy, Kharkov and Mariupol will be submitted to Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshchuk.
"This statement will be immediately communicated to the Ukrainian side (Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshchuk) and it will be proposed to agree on the given routes and the start time of the humanitarian corridors until 03:00 Moscow time on March 9, 2022," the statement says.
The document says that the confirmation should be sent in writing. In particular, the Ukrainian authorities will have to give security guarantees on the declared routes of the humanitarian operation.
Russia also suggests that Ukraine publish the statement on humanitarian corridors in the Ukrainian media outlets (in Ukrainian and Russian) by 03:00 a.m. Moscow time on Wednesday.
On February 24, Putin announced a special military operation in response to a request for help by the heads of the Donbass republics. He stressed that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories, but aims to demilitarize and denazify the country. The Russian Defense Ministry said that Russian troops are not targeting Ukrainian cities, but are incapacitating Ukrainian military infrastructure, therefore there are no threats to the civilian population.