Russia-Ukraine live updates: Negotiators agree to temporary cease-fire in some areas for civilian evacuation

MUKACHEVO, Ukraine — The southern Ukrainian city of Kherson faces a “global catastrophe” if a humanitarian corridor to allow civilians to be evacuated, and food and medicines to be delivered, is not opened in the nearest future, the secretary of the city council said.

“In Kherson, we are running out of food — literally, we can still last for maybe three, four days,” Galina Luhova said by telephone from Kherson. “We’re running out of medicines, we’re out of baby food, we are running out of diapers, and we are running out of first aid in hospitals.”

Kherson was among the first cities Russian troops attacked as they swept into Ukraine last week, and local eyewitnesses say that it is the first major city to fall to Kremlin forces. Ukraine’s Defense Ministry has not confirmed that it is controlled by Moscow, however.

But according to Luhova, Russian equipment and soldiers are “absolutely everywhere,” and Ukrainian forces are “currently not in the city.” Ukrainian city officials continue to carry out their duties, however, and the Ukrainian flag still flies over city hall.

What’s more, she said, Moscow’s forces encircle Kherson, as the fighting continues to rage in southern Ukraine, making it impossible for the city of 320,000 people to receive needed supplies and let civilians escape to safer areas.

The fighting has left large portions of Kherson without electricity and running water. The number of people killed in the fighting is hard to determine, she said, but the figures could be “in the dozens, maybe hundreds,” and their corpses are in “the city’s streets, parks and squares.”

Now that the fighting has stopped, it’s become possible to open some stores and points of distribution. Queues stretched “hundreds of meters,” she said.

“People tried to take everything that there is — flour, sugar, eggs — and there’s a very tense situation with bread in those areas that were shelled,” she said.

Ukrainian and Russian negotiators said Thursday that they had reached a tentative agreement to introduce temporary cease-fires in those areas that were facing a crisis, allowing humanitarian corridors to be opened.

This, Luhova says, is the “most important thing right now” that can avert a humanitarian disaster. “It will save the city from a global catastrophe,” she said.

“People are in a panic, people are tense, people are frightened just to the core of their souls,” she said. “Their eyes show insane fear at what is happening now.”