According to Russian media reports, on the evening of March 8, local time in Ukraine, the Ukrainian Humanitarian Response Coordination Command established by Russia issued an emergency statement, announcing that from 10 o'clock Moscow time on March 9, the Russian military troops that are carrying out special military operations will once again enter a "state of silence" and open 10 humanitarian corridors to facilitate the evacuation of civilians in the five cities of Kiev, Kharkov, Chernihiv, Samui and Mariupol.
A large number of civilians have now been withdrawn from these humanitarian corridors, but there are also parts of the population whose withdrawal has been unsuccessfully intercepted by local Ukrainian forces. Some people believe that now the Russian army decided to evacuate civilians, precisely in order to make final preparations for the siege, because without the civilian "human shield", the Russian army can finally put heavy artillery units into the siege.
So far, tens of thousands of civilians have been evacuated from various humanitarian corridors, and thousands have been successfully evacuated in the Sumy region of the Russian-Ukrainian border alone. Some news media photographed the evacuation of a large number of civilians and vehicles from the Sumy area, and the process was not disturbed. But this is not the case in all regions.
For example, according to Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Veleshyuk on March 8, the evacuation of civilians from Mariupol by the Ukrainian side has failed. The main reason for the defeat was the refusal of the fascist militia and Nazi forces here to evacuate the civilians from the city, because then the Russian artillery would have to tear them to pieces. Many neo-Nazis chanted slogans to drag civilians to hell and opened fire on retreating civilians, and there have been videos of civilian vehicles being destroyed by these vigilante groups.
In fact, the Russians and Ukrainians are not consistent in the way civilians retreat. Russia wants to evacuate civilians to Russian-controlled areas, but the Ukrainian side does not accept it. Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Vladimir Veleshyuk said the Ukrainian government opposes russia's plan to evacuate civilians to Russian-controlled areas. In response, the Russian side also relaxed the direction of the retreat, and some civilians were withdrawn to the Ukrainian-controlled Poltava area.
Photographs of local civilians retreating
In addition to the evacuees, Russia provided humanitarian relief supplies to local civilians. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, they have mobilized 120 tons of humanitarian relief materials to the Kharkiv region, including various food, water, medical supplies, warm clothing and so on. Another 430 tons were transported to the Donbass region, one of the hardest-hit areas of war, where civilians are in dire need of humanitarian relief supplies. The arrival of these precious materials has undoubtedly eased the pressure on the lives of local civilians.
However, for the Russian army to enter a "state of silence", the outside world has different opinions. Some believe that the Russian army is currently running out of offensive energy and has to stop and rest. But more people think that it is nothing more than a delay in the Russian army, and the mass evacuation of civilians itself means that the Russian heavy artillery unit is about to enter the battle. And this "silence" is only to reduce civilian casualties and reduce political pressure. After all, if large-scale civilians are in urban areas, once there are a large number of casualties, it is bound to cause political disadvantages. After the civilians were out of the car, the Russian army could let go and use its superior firepower to put the Ukrainian army that was surrounded in the city and prepared to fight a street battle.