Mariupol evacuations resume with Russia regrouping in Ukraine. Here’s what’s happening

Latest update as of 8:03 on Thursday:

• Russia is redeploying elements of its forces from Georgia to reinforce its invasion of Ukraine, British military intelligence said on Thursday.
• In a video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday that he has fired two senior members of national security. “I do not have time to deal with traitors,” he said.
• President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the situation in the south and the Donbas region remained extremely difficult. He reiterated that Russia was building up forces near the besieged city of Mariupol.
• President Vladimir Putin threatened on Thursday to halt contracts supplying Europe with a third of its gas unless they are paid in Russian currency.
• All Russian forces occupying the Chornobyl nuclear power station have withdrawn from the territory of the defunct plant, the Ukrainian state nuclear company said Thursday.
• Further sanctions targeting Russia will be imposed in the coming days by the U.S. Commerce Department, the White House said Thursday. This will add 120 entities from Russia and Belarus to the country’s list.

Attempts to deliver aid and evacuate civilians in the besieged southern city of Mariupol resumed Thursday as Ukraine prepared for new Russian strikes.

A convoy of Ukrainian buses set out for the destroyed city to try to deliver humanitarian supplies and bring out civilians, said Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk and the Red Cross.

Maxar satellite imagery shows before and after photos published on March 29 of a residential area in Mariupol damaged in ongoing fighting. – Satellite image ©2022 Maxar Technologies

Meanwhile, the head of the NATO military alliance said its intelligence shows Russia does not appear to be scaling back its military operations in northern Ukraine, but is instead redeploying forces to the eastern Donbas region.

British military intelligence also said Thursday that Russia is redeploying elements of its forces from Georgia to reinforce its invasion of Ukraine.

“Between 1,200 and 2,000 of these Russian troops are being reorganised into 3x Battalion Tactical Groups,” Britain’s Ministry of Defence said.

Here’s a round-up of what’s happening:

About 45 buses were on their way to Mariupol after the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) confirmed Russia had agreed to open a safe corridor.

In Geneva, the ICRC called on both sides to agree to the exact terms for the safe passage of civilians, adding it would be ready to lead the operation on Friday if Ukraine and Russia did so.

“Militaries on the ground need to give civilians and humanitarian organizations security guarantees and practical agreements to allow aid in and for those who wish to evacuate safely,” the ICRC said in an end-of-day update. Its two trucks have arrived in the nearby city of Zaporizhzhia with aid items and medical supplies.

Later on Thursday, Russia’s defence ministry said it would open a humanitarian corridor to Zaporizhzhia from Mariupol on Friday, state media reported.

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Earlier this week, Mariupol’s mayor said roughly 170,000 residents were trapped there with no power and limited supplies. The city, which had a population of roughly 400,000 before the war began on Feb. 24, has been a strategic focus of Russia and has suffered near-constant bombardment.

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Repeated attempts to organize safe corridors have failed, with each side blaming the other. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Thursday thousands of people have been killed in Mariupol. Russia denies targeting civilians in its war on Ukraine.

Vladimir Putin is committed to securing humanitarian assistance in Mariupol, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said following a phone call with the Russian president.

During the hour-long phone call, Stoere said he urged Putin to end the war in Ukraine, pull out Russian troops and enable humanitarian access.

Stoere added, however, that only actions on the ground will show whether Russia delivers on those promises.

Putin also said Thursday that conditions were not yet in place for a ceasefire in Ukraine, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi told reporters after his phone call with the Russian president.

Putin also said current Russian gas contracts remained in force, and that European firms will continue to pay in euros and dollars, rather than in rubles as the Kremlin has threatened, Draghi said.

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“What I understood, but I may be wrong, is that the conversion of the payment … is an internal matter of the Russian Federation,” Draghi said.

However, Putin said on Russian TV later he has signed a decree indicating foreign buyers must pay in rubles for Russian gas starting April 1, and contracts would be halted if these payments were not made.

“In order to purchase Russian natural gas, they must open ruble accounts in Russian banks. It is from these accounts that payments will be made for gas delivered starting from tomorrow,” Putin said.

After promising to scale back operations near Kyiv and Chernihiv to “increase mutual trust and create conditions for further negotiations,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Russia is instead redeploying forces to the eastern Donbas region.

“Russia has repeatedly lied about its intentions,” he told reporters on Thursday, adding it must be judged on its actions alone, not the word of its leaders.

“According to our intelligence, Russian units are not withdrawing but repositioning. Russia is trying to regroup, resupply and reinforce its offensive in the Donbas region,” Stoltenberg said.

2:50 Russia-Ukraine conflict: More than 4 million people have fled Ukraine as food crisis looms

Meanwhile, he said pressure is being kept up on Kyiv and other cities and “we can expect additional offensive actions bringing even more suffering.”

Late last week, Russia said it would shift its military focus to the Donbas region, where fighting has been ongoing for eight years between Russian-backed rebels and Ukrainian armed forces.

Turkey’s top diplomat said the country is trying to bring the Ukrainian and Russian foreign ministers together again for talks.

A new meeting could happen within two weeks, Mevlut Cavusoglu said in an interview with Turkey’s A Haber channel.

However, Ukraine and Russia will resume talks by video on Friday, the head of Ukraine’s delegation said.

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On Tuesday in Istanbul, the Ukrainian delegation proposed the country would declare itself neutral — dropping its bid to join NATO, as Moscow has long demanded — in return for security guarantees from a group of other nations, potentially including Canada.

Russian diplomats responded positively to Ukraine’s proposal, but the Kremlin shot down immediate hopes for peace on Wednesday.

The Ukrainian state nuclear company said on Thursday that all of the Russian forces occupying the Chernobyl nuclear power station had withdrawn from the territory of the defunct plant.

There was no immediate comment from the Russian authorities. The U.N. nuclear watchdog, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said it is preparing to send a mission to the radioactive waste facilities at Chernobyl in northern Ukraine.

Though Russian soldiers seized control of Chernobyl soon after the Feb. 24 invasion, the plant’s Ukrainian staff continued to oversee the safe storage of spent nuclear fuel and supervise the concrete-encased remains of the reactor that exploded in 1986, causing the world’s worst nuclear accident.

“According to the staff of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, there are now no outsiders on site,” Energoatom said in an online post. State-owned Energoatom had earlier said most troops had gone, leaving only a small number behind.

Russian forces have also retreated from the nearby town of Slavutych, where workers at Chernobyl live, the company said.

— with files from The Associated Press and Reuters.