Moscow, March 30 (Agency) Kiev has sent a request to Moscow to organize humanitarian corridors in the 97 most affected settlements for the evacuation of citizens and delivery of aid, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said on Wednesday. On Tuesday, another two-day round of talks between Russia and Ukraine began in Istanbul. The head of the Russian delegation, Vladimir Medinsky, called the meeting constructive and announced that Moscow would scale down its military activities in the Kiev and Chernihiv regions. Kiev, in turn, proposed security guarantees for Ukraine with the UN Security Council members acting as guarantors.
“Yesterday, at the talks, Russia was given proposals to organize humanitarian corridors in the 97 most affected settlements in the regions of Kharkiv, Kherson, Chernihiv, Sumy, Zaporizhia, Donetsk, Luhansk and Mykolaiv. Today we will continue to work to get response to these proposals,” Vereshchuk said at a briefing. On February 24, Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine after the breakaway republics of Donetsk and Luhansk appealed for help in defending themselves against Ukrainian forces. The Russian Ministry of Defense said the operation is targeting Ukrainian military infrastructure only. According to the UN refugee agency, over 4 million people have already left Ukraine for neighboring countries since the start of hostilities. Over 1,100 civilians have been killed and more than 1,800 injured in Ukraine since February 24, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said.