Kyiv announces approval of ceasefire until Wed night to evacuate civilians through 6 passages

KYIV. March 9 (Interfax-Ukraine) - Routes for the evacuation of civilians from a number of populated localities have been coordinated with Russia, and there is an agreement to cease fire between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. on Wednesday, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said.

"At 5:30 a.m. we received a message from Russia regarding the coordination of the routes proposed by us earlier... We sent a letter to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), and our prime minister, Denys Anatoliyovych Shmyhal, spoke with ICRC head Peter Maurer at 9 a.m. to confirm this coordination. The military agrees to cease fire from 9 a.m. till 9 p.m. today," Vereshchuk said in a video address released on the Telegram channel of the Ukrainian Presidential Office on Wednesday morning.

According to Kyiv, there will be a ceasefire and humanitarian passages on the following routes: Enerhodar-Zaporizhzhya, Sumy-Poltava, Mariupol-Zaporizhzhya, Volnovakha-Pokrovsk, Izyum-Lozove, Vorzel, Bucha, Borodyanka, Irpin, and Hostomel-Kyiv.