They will open a humanitarian corridor from the besieged Mariupol: 100,000 people want to leave the city

The Russian authorities confirmed that a humanitarian corridor will be set up this Friday from the port city of Mariupol to Zaporiyia, thus complying with the requests of the French and German governments.

“At the personal request of the President of France (Emmanuel Macron) and the Foreign Minister of Germany (Olaf Scholz) to the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, from 10 a.m. local time on April 1, the Russian Armed Forces will reopen a humanitarian corridor from Mariupol to Zaporiyia,” explained the head of the the Russian National Defense, Colonel Mikhail Mizintsev.

Mizintsev indicated that an intermediate point will be established along the humanitarian corridor route in the port city of Berdyansk, some 70 kilometers from Mariupol and almost 170 km from Zaporiyia.

The military high command called for the participation of both the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to ensure that the outcome of this humanitarian operation is “successful”, according to the Russian news agency TASS.

The Russian authorities urged Ukrainian women to report on this agreement and even ask the media to publish the opening statement of the humanitarian corridor so that foreign embassies and structures of the UN or the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) can count on the information.

Moscow has also made it a requirement that the Ukrainian authorities confirm by 6 a.m. local time their readiness to evacuate civilians from Mariupol.

Prior to this announcement, the ICRC had already reported that it had teams deployed in the area waiting for the humanitarian corridor to be formalized and ready to work this Friday to evacuate civilians and care for citizens who choose to stay in their homes.

On Thursday, the Ukrainian authorities numbered 75,000 citizens of Mariupol evacuated through humanitarian corridors and indicated that another 100,000 civilians are waiting to be able to leave the city safely.

Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine and Minister for Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories, Irina Vereshchuk, said that people hoping to leave the city “desperately” need both Ukrainian resources and those of the rest of the world.

In addition, it revealed that another 45,000 have been forcibly deported by the Russian Army to Russia and also to the territory of the Donetsk People's Republic - self-proclaimed but recognized by the Kremlin.

At this point, Vereshchuk accused Russian troops of committing crimes in the territories that Kiev defines as “temporarily occupied”, alluding to the aforementioned Donetsk and also Lugansk. According to the Deputy Prime Minister, murders, looting and rape would be taking place there, although all these violations are being investigated by the Prosecutor's Office.

“But the most shocking are sex crimes. The occupants make fun of our underage girls and women. Such facts are evidenced by women who managed to leave Mariupol. Everyone should know about this,” Vereshchuk denounced.

The city, located between the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Lugansk and the Crimean peninsula, annexed by Russia in 2014, is one of the main stages of the Russian military offensive, supported by separatist militias. The fighting, which has allowed Russian forces to seize some areas of the locality, has caused enormous devastation.

Russian troops continue to extensively bombard the disputed Donbas area with heavy weapons, while attacks persist around Kiev and other major cities such as Chernigov (north) and Kharkov (east).

The various regional administrations ensure that virtually the entire country continues to suffer attacks of various kinds, despite Moscow's announcement of decreasing its offensive on Kiev and some other major cities, reports Urkrinform.

(With information from Europa Press and EFE)

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