KYIV – Russia and Ukraine agreed on Wednesday to a day-long truce centred on a network of evacuation routes to allow people to flee the conflict, according to Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk.

Vereshchuk stated that Moscow has agreed to observe the cease-fire from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. in six areas that have been seriously impacted by fighting, including districts around Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia in the south, and sections of Ukraine’s northeast.

Civilians from the capital’s outskirts, particularly Irpin and Bucha to the northwest, will be evacuated to Kyiv to avoid Russian shelling.

Civilians have begun evacuating from the cluster of settlements on Kyiv’s northwestern outskirts, which have been largely captured by Russian military.

On Sunday, a bursting shell killed four persons who were walking to Kyiv.

According to Kyrylo Timoshenko of Ukraine’s presidential office, 60 buses in two convoys were able to evacuate citizens from Sumy, 350 kilometres (220 miles) east of Kyiv, on Tuesday.

More than 5,000 people were evacuated from Sumy, a town of 250,000 people near the Russian border that has seen intense conflict.

According to the UNHCR, the overall number of refugees is between 2.1 and 2.2 million.