Ukraine and Russia announced the opening of a humanitarian corridor on Wednesday (20) for the withdrawal of civilians from Mariupol, the southern Ukrainian port city that has been besieged for weeks by Russian troops, some international portals report.

"We managed to reach a preliminary agreement on a humanitarian corridor for women, children and the elderly," Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said.

"Taking into consideration the catastrophic situation in Mariupol, today we are focusing our efforts in this direction," he added.

As of Saturday no humanitarian corridor was in operation in Ukraine due to the lack of agreement with Moscow, which has intensified attacks in eastern Ukraine in recent days.

Almost 300,000 Ukrainians have left their cities through these devices since the start of the war on February 24, according to the Ukrainian Ministry of Reintegration.

"Since the beginning of the war, the Ukrainian government has proposed more than 340 humanitarian corridors. The (Russian) occupiers have accepted almost 300 and in fact 176 have worked," said the ministry, which accuses Russia of having violated the ceasefire or blocked the withdrawal buses on several occasions, which Moscow denies.