Kyiv cancels 36-hour curfew

(Update 1: adds cancellation of curfew)

Lviv, Ukraine, Mar 26 (EFE).- A 36-hour curfew that was set to come into force in Kyiv starting from 8pm on Saturday has been canceled, mayor Vitali Klitschko said.

“The curfew in Kyiv and the region will not apply tomorrow afternoon. The curfew will remain normal, from 8pm to 7am,” he posted on Telegram.

“On Sunday afternoon it will be possible (for people) to move around the capital and the region,” he added.

Earlier in the day, Klitschko had announced a curfew in Kyiv would take effect from 8 pm on Saturday until 7am Monday.

The curfew would have meant people could only leave home to go to air-raid shelters, while public transport and shops, including pharmacies and gas stations, would not be working, Klitschko said on social media.

Several civilians, including a child, have been injured in a new Russian shelling on Kyiv, said the chief of police of the Kyiv region, Andrei Nebitov, according to official Ukrainian media.

“The enemy again attacked towns in the Kyiv region with heavy artillery. At least five houses were destroyed and there were civilian casualties, including a child,” Ukrinform added.

Ten humanitarian corridors have been established to evacuate civilians from the cities worst-hit by the Russian attacks, sources from the government said.

In Mariupol, only private vehicles are allowed to leave, as Russian troops besieging the Black Sea port city are preventing the passage of buses, deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk said on public television.

Kyiv and Moscow have traded accusations over the failure to implement the previously agreed upon humanitarian corridors.

Some 100,000 inhabitants are still trapped in the southern city of Mariupol, according to Ukrainian authorities. EFE

int-vh/ta/ks