Live Update 
From the Liveblog of
Saturday, March 19, 2022
From the Liveblog of
Saturday, March 19, 2022
Zelensky says 9,000 leave besieged Mariupol
Local residents carry water from the food warehouse, on the territory which is under the Government of the Donetsk People's Republic control, on the outskirts of Mariupol, Ukraine, on March 18, 2022. (Alexei Alexandrov/AP)
LVIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says Russian forces are blockading Ukraine’s largest cities to create a “humanitarian catastrophe” with the aim of persuading Ukrainians to cooperate with them.
He says Russians are preventing supplies from reaching surrounded cities in the center and southeast of the country.
“This is a totally deliberate tactic,” Zelenskyy said in his nighttime video address to the nation, filmed outside in Kyiv, with the presidential office in the lamplight behind him.
He said more than 9,000 people were able to leave besieged Mariupol in the past day, and in all more than 180,000 people have been able to flee to safety through humanitarian corridors.
