INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
The Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, which is surrounded by Russian troops, said it will restart efforts to evacuate civilians Sunday, after
earlier efforts were scuppered by ceasefire violations."From 1200 (1000 GMT) the evacuation of the civilian population begins," city
officials announced in a statement, which said a ceasefire was agreed with Russian-led forces surrounding the city.An earlier attempt on
Saturday to allow civilians to leave by buses and private cars along the road northwest towards Zaporizhzhia failed when both sides accused
the other of shelling.According to aid agency Doctors Without Borders (MSF) the humanitarian situation in Mariupol, a key target for the
Russian invasion forces, is "catastrophic" with no power or water in civilian homes."It is imperative that this humanitarian corridor ..
is put in place very quickly," MSF's emergency coordinator in Ukraine, Laurent Ligozat, told AFP.Ukrainian authorities accuse the Russians
exploiting a "human shield."Separately, on Sunday, the head of Kyiv-controlled Luhansk regional administration, said a train would be
organized to evacuate women, children and the elderly from Lysychansk.Lysychansk is near the frontline between Ukrainian forces and
Moscow-backed separatists, who are fighting to link up with the Russian forces and control the entire southeast."You need to reach
Lysychansk station on your own
Women with children are boarding first, then women under 40, women, the elderly," Sergiy Gaiday wrote on Telegram.If Russian forces succeed
in capturing Mariupol which held out against rebel forces in the previous 2014 conflict, they will control Ukraine's entire Azov Sea
coast.This would give them a landbridge from Russia to Russian-annexed Crimea and an important supply route and port if they decide to push
north in a bid to take all of eastern Ukraine.
