Russia announced ceasefire on humanitarian grounds in Ukraine on Wednesday morning to allow the evacuation of civilian population.

Russia declared a “silence mode” and is ready to provide humanitarian corridors from a number of cities including Kyiv for the evacuation of civilians, reported ANI quoting Sputnik news agency.

Amid Russian invasion of Ukraine, the announcement came as both sides shifted blame on each other over civilian casualties and the failure to provide humanitarian corridors to evacuate them.

Russia said that they were prepared to provide corridors from Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Mariupol, and Zaporizhzhia.

The head of Russian humanitarian coordination centre, Mikhail Mizintsev said that Russia had again offered Ukraine to agree on the routes for evacuation of civilians.

Mizintsev said, “The said statement should be immediately brought to the attention of the Ukrainian side and proposed by 03:00 [Moscow time, midnight GMT] on March 9, 2022 to agree on the indicated routes and the start time of the humanitarian corridors, as well as submit a written approval of these approaches, including guarantees to ensure security.”

Earlier on Tuesday, civilian evacuations took place, in particular from the town of Sumy. Moreover, evacuations also took place outside the capital Kyiv as Russia allowed a window for Indian nationals stranded in the city to be evacuated following President Putin’s telephonic conversation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

PM Modi also had a conversation with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy and urged both the leaders to come to dialogue and resolve the differences through diplomacy.