Ukraine hopes to open 9 humanitarian corridors, get aid to besieged Mariupol

Local authorities say anywhere between 2,300 and 20,000 civilians have died 

Ukraine hopes to open nine corridors on Tuesday to evacuate civilians trapped by Russian forces and will try to deliver humanitarian supplies to the besieged port of Mariupol, said Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk.

Qazet.az reports that hundreds of thousands of residents of Mariupol, which has been under constant bombardment, have sheltered in basements and the ruins of buildings without water or power for more than a week. Moscow on Monday allowed the first convoy to escape.

"In the first two hours, 160 cars left," Andrei Rempel, a representative of the Mariupol city council, told Reuters.

Local authorities say anywhere between 2,300 and 20,000 civilians have died so far in Russian shelling in the city, a toll that could not be independently confirmed.

Two powerful explosions rocked the capital Kyiv before dawn on Tuesday. Emergency services said two people died when an apartment building in Kyiv was attacked.

Air raid sirens sounded in several regions including Odessa, Chernihiv, Cherkasy and Smila.

The death toll from Monday's air strike on a TV tower in northern Ukraine rose to at least 19, said Vitaliy Koval, the governor of the northern region of Rivne.

Further talks between Ukrainian and Russian negotiators to ease the crisis were expected on Tuesday after discussions on Monday via video ended with no new progress announced.