Ukraine and Russia have opened a humanitarian corridor in the city of Sumy for the evacuation of Nigerian and other international students trapped in Sumy State University (SumDU).
The ceasefire, which is already underway, started at 10am Tuesday and will end by 9pm tonight.
It will allow civilians and all international students to flee through specified routes to the neighbouring state of Poltava.
ADULAWONEWS gathered that about 380 trapped Nigerian students were facing food and water shortages in Sumy as of last Friday, but several have managed to flee since then.
Eight of them dodged Russian soldiers and tanks between Sunday and Monday as they fled westwards to the train station in Myrhorod, a city in the Poltava Oblast (province) of central Ukraine.
Airstrikes by Russian forces reportedly killed 20 people the city overnight.
According to a post by the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on its Twitter handle the humanitarian corridor is from Sumy through Holubivka through Lokhvytsia through Lubny to Poltava.
But the humanitarian cargo route is from Lokhvytsia through Andriyashivka through Romny through Nedryhailiv to Sumy.
The agreement requires both parties to pause the fighting.
“A humanitarian corridor to evacuate civilians, including foreign students, from Sumy to Poltava has been agreed today.
“We call on Russia to uphold its ceasefire commitment, to refrain from activities that endanger the lives of people and to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid,” the Ukrainian MFA said.