Russo-Ukraine War: Evacuation route in Ukraine's Mariupol was mined, says ICRC

A road designated as a humanitarian corridor out of Ukraine's Mariupol turned out to be mined, the director of operations at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Monday.

Dominik Stillhart told a BBC morning show that the ICRC was leading a convoy of displaced Ukrainian civilians out of the southern port city on Sunday.

He did not say which side of the conflict was suspected of mining the route.

"Our people were leading that convoy. They arrived at the first checkpoint only to realise that the road they were supposed to take was actually mined,'' Stillhart said.

The health aid charity is holding conversations with Russia and Ukraine to organise military-to-military talks and agree on roads and times for evacuations, "otherwise, it will be difficult to facilitate the agreement,'' Stillhart added.

On Feb. 24, Russia began a special operation to demilitarize and denazify Ukraine, responding to calls for help from the Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics in countering the aggression of Ukrainian troops.

The Russian Defence Ministry said the special operation was targeting Ukrainian military infrastructure only and the civilian population was not in danger.

Moscow had repeatedly stressed that it had no plans to occupy Ukraine.

The Russian and Ukrainian delegations met twice in Belarus to discuss conditions for a ceasefire and an end to the conflict.

This would be as well as organising humanitarian corridors for evacuating Ukraine's civilian population from areas of hostilities.