At the initiative of Turkiye, Russia will open new humanitarian corridors beginning early Monday for civilians to be evacuated from Ukraine’s besieged city of Mariupol.
Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev, the head of Russia’s National Defense Control Center, said Sunday that his country is conducting systematic and coordinated work on the issue of evacuations of civilians and foreign citizens from conflict zones.
He said Russia opens humanitarian corridors in the Kharkiv and Mariupol directions every day from 10.00 a.m. Moscow time (0700GMT).
Claiming that the Ukrainian side announced that it had opened seven corridors in the Zaporizhia and Donetsk directions during the day but none of these corridors were on the Russian side, Mizintsez said the Russian side has complied with the cease-fire on all routes, including those announced by Ukraine.
Additionally, Russia welcomes all positive humanitarian initiatives from foreign states and international organizations and responds quickly, he said.
He stressed that the Russian side has provided all the necessary conditions for the evacuation of civilians and foreign citizens from Mariupol to the city of Berdyansk at the request of French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on March 31 and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on April 3 to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"In accordance with the request of the President of the Republic of Turkiye to the President of the Russian Federation (Vladimir Vladimirovich) Putin, the decision was made to provide full assistance in the evacuation of foreign citizens held hostage by the remaining militants of nationalist battalions in certain areas of Mariupol,” he said.
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