Evacuation began in Sumy, the Foreign Ministry of Ukraine reported.

The humanitarian corridor will remain open, and free from Russian fire, until 9 p.m.

Civilians and foreign students will travel to Poltava along a route pre-approved with Russia.

"As of 9:30 a.m., more than 150 people have been evacuated and (evacuation) activities are underway," said Oleksiy Kuleba, governor of the Kyiv region.

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The former President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych wrote a letter to Volodymyr Zelensky to end the war with Russia "at any cost."

"I understand very well that you have many 'advisers', but personally you are obliged to stop the bloodshed at any cost and reach a peace agreement. This is what is expected of you in Ukraine, Donbass and Russia," the ex-leader wrote in a letter obtained by Russian news agency RIA Novosti.

Yanukovych was removed from office in 2014 and lives in exile in Russia.

"From your first day, you promised to stop the war in Ukraine, and that's why all of Ukraine supported you. You could become the president of the world, but, unfortunately, this did not happen," Yanukovych reportedly wrote, noting that "in any tragedy there is a moment when it can still be stopped."

According to Ukraine's armed forces, as many as 12,000 Russian soldiers have been killed between February 24 and March 7.

"The data is clearing up. The calculation is complicated by the high intensity of combat," the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine posted on Facebook Tuesday morning.

Additionally, Ukraine’s military destroyed 1,036 armored personnel carriers, 474 vehicles, 303 tanks, 120 artillery systems, 60 fuel tanks, 56 multiple launch rocket systems, 80 helicopters, 48 aircraft, 27 anti-aircraft warfare systems, seven unmanned aerial vehicles and two boats, as complied by the Kyiv Independent.

The first humanitarian corridor in Ukraine is set to open in the city of Sumy.

"It has been agreed that the first convoy will start at 10 a.m. (3 a.m. ET) from the city of Sumy. The convoy will be followed by the local population in personal vehicles," Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said March 8.

Russia had agreed to implement a ceasefire Tuesday morning and open humanitarian corridors to evacuate citizens from the besieged cities of Kiev, Chernigov, Sumy and Mariupol.

There are also alarming reports that the corridors may be a trap: A senior Red Cross official told the BBC on Monday that agency workers trying to use a passageway out of Mariupol said the route had been booby-trapped with landmines.  

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A human rights group says Russia bombed an intersection on a road used by fleeing Ukrainian civilians for hours earlier this week.

The attacks on Sunday in Irpin left at least 8 civilians dead, according to Mayor Oleksandr Markushin.

“Scores of civilians fleeing northern Ukraine to escape Russian shelling and potential occupation found themselves victims of yet another Russian assault,” said Richard Weir, crisis and conflict researcher at Human Rights Watch, in a statement Tuesday.

“The hours-long bombardment on a location with evacuating civilians raises concerns that Russian forces were conducting indiscriminate or disproportionate attacks, and failing to take all feasible precautions to minimize civilian casualties.”

Fears were mounting about the thousands of civilians trapped in besieged Ukrainian cities as Russia continued to bombard residential areas on Tuesday, preventing evacuations.

Russia’s United Nations ambassador claimed Moscow would hold fire Tuesday morning and grant safe passage to residents of Sumy, Zhytomyr, Kharkiv, Mariupol and suburbs of Kyiv.

But the plan was met with doubt by Ukrainian leaders after several previous efforts to establish the so-called humanitarian corridors were shattered when Russia renewed its attacks.

As the invasion entered its 13th day, Russia continued dropping a steady stream of rockets and shells on population centers.

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Ukraine's military said Tuesday that the pace of the Russian advance "has slowed significantly."

The General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces also claimed in a Facebook post that enemy troops were "demoralized" and had resorted to "violating the rules of international humanitarian law on military conflict."

An Irish man rammed his truck through the gates of the Russian embassy in Dublin on Monday in protest of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine — earning cheers from onlookers.

Desmond Wisley, a businessman from County Leitrim in the north of Ireland, was arrested for criminal damage and remained in custody following the incident, according to The Irish Times. He’s expected to appear in court on Tuesday.

Video of the incident shared online shows the back of a delivery truck smashing through the front gates of the embassy to cheers of “Bravo” and “Good man” from protesters holding signs outside of the gates around 1:30 p.m. No one was injured.

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At least 150 journalists are believed to have fled Russia amid the Kremlin's crackdown on independent media, according to a report.

A law signed by President Vladimir Putin on Friday criminalizes “fake” news — and carries a prison sentence of up to 15 years — for journalists who contradict the country’s official statements about the Ukraine invasion.

Several major Western news organizations, including CNN, Bloomberg and the BBC, have already said they would halt broadcasting in Russia over the censorship measures.

The mayor of Bucha, a Kyiv suburb, says her city is being hit nonstop by Russian artillery fire, leaving corpses strewn in the streets.

“We can’t even gather up the bodies because the shelling from heavy weapons doesn’t stop day or night,” Mayor Anatol Fedoruk said. “Dogs are pulling apart the bodies on the city streets. It’s a nightmare.”

The city of 36,971 was one of several in eastern and central Ukraine that Russian forces continued to bomb overnight Monday into Tuesday.

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Children were reportedly among more than 10 people killed by Russian aerial attacks in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Sumy and its suburbs on Monday night.

Local politician Dmytro Zhyvytsky shared the tragic update in a Facebook live video that was translated by BBC.

"Unfortunately, children are among those killed,” Zhyvytsky said of the 11 p.m. bombings by Russian warplanes, according to the outlet.

"We will never forgive this!" he wrote in a subsequent post.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Russia's invasion of his country will have dire consequences for the rest of the world.

"Everyone thinks that we are far away from America or Canada. No, we are in this zone of freedom. And when the limits of rights and freedoms are being violated and stepped on, then you have to protect us," Zelensky told anchor David Muir on “ABC World News Tonight” Monday.

"Because we will come first. You will come second," he continued. "Because the more this beast will eat, he wants more, more, and more."

Zelensky also specifically called on Americans to support Ukraine's "fight for freedom."