Ukraine says no civilian evacuations for third day

Ukraine said Tuesday there would be no humanitarian corridors to evacuate civilians in the country for a third consecutive day because there has been no agreement with Russia.

Ukrainian officials say Russia has launched a major offensive into the eastern Donbas region, opening a new phase of its invasion after being thwarted in efforts to capture the capital, Kyiv.

"Today, April 19, there will unfortunately be no humanitarian corridor," Ukaine's Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk wrote on Telegram.


"The intense bombardment of Donbas is continuing."

Vereshchuk said that "the Russians refuse to open a corridor" to evacuate civilians from the besieged port city of Mariupol towards Berdyansk.

"We're continuing the difficult negotiations for humanitarian corridors in the Kherson and Kharkiv regions", in the south and east respectively, she added.