Walkbacks and disagreements have prevented the opening of humanitarian corridors.

As the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues, numerous Ukrainian civilians have been caught up in the crossfire. Citizens have been forced to flee cities besieged by Russian shelling, and even those in areas that aren’t under direct attack have found themselves cut off from vital resources like food and electricity. Along with the repeated attempts at peace talks, representatives of the two countries have been attempting to establish humanitarian corridors, designated evacuation routes that these civilians can follow to safety without having to worry about being attacked.

Unfortunately, despite several attempts to set up these corridors, nothing concrete has been established. The first couple of safe routes that were allegedly agreed upon by both sides collapsed when Russian troops attacked them. Most recently, Moscow has proposed several new routes, but Ukraine turned them down as the majority of these routes would funnel Ukraine’s citizens into Russia and Belarus rather than Ukrainian or friendly territories.

“They are citizens of Ukraine, they should have the right to evacuate to the territory of Ukraine,” a spokesperson for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told Reuters. “This is one of the problems that is causing the humanitarian corridors to break down. They seem to agree to them, but they themselves want to supply humanitarian aid for a picture on TV, and want the corridors to lead in their direction.”