Ukraine civilians prepare to evacuate besieged city again under new ceasefire plan

Evacuations from the port city of Mariupol were scheduled to begin at noon local time during a 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. local ceasefire, Ukrainian military authorities said.

Ukrainian authorities prepared Sunday for a second attempt to evacuate civilians from a southern city pounded by a week-long Russian attack as economic pressure on Moscow intensified and diplomats shuttled around Europe to try to end the war.

Evacuations from the port city of Mariupol were scheduled to begin at noon local time (10 a.m. GMT) during a 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. local ceasefire, Ukrainian military authorities said. A similar cease-fire planned there and in the nearby city of Volnovakha collapsed Saturday, trapping women, children and older under more shelling and aerial bombardment by Russian forces.

The revived announcement came after Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and a Russian-speaking member of his Cabinet traveled to Moscow and spoke with Ukraine’s president in hopes of brokering a broader deal to stop the fighting, now in its 11 day.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spent the weekend visiting NATO member nations in Eastern Europe that have seen 1.5 million refugees stream across their borders since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. The head of the U.N. refugee agency called the exodus “the fastest-growing refugee crisis since World War II.”

Ukrainian President Voldymyr Zelenskyy reiterated a request for foreign protectors to impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Saturday that Moscow would consider a third-party declaration to close Ukrainian airspace to be a hostile act, and the West so far has rebuffed Zelenskyy’s pleas, fearing a confrontation with Russia.

“The world is strong enough to close our skies,” Zelenskyy said in a video address on Sunday.

As Russian forces surrounded several Ukrainian cities and maintained a convoy outside the capital, Kyiv, Zelenskyy appeared on television Saturday night wearing what has become a habitual military green T-shirt and rallied his people to remain defiant.

“Ukrainians in all of our cities that the enemy has entered — go on the offensive!” Zelenskyy said. “You should take to the streets! You should fight! ? It is necessary to go out and drive this evil out of our cities, from our land.”