Nobody has been evacuated from Mariupol – Vereshchuk, Deputy Prime Minister

KATERYNA TYSHCHENKO — THURSDAY, 10 MARCH 2022, 19:59

Due to shelling by the aggressor, no one has been evacuated via the humanitarian corridor from Mariupol to Zaporizhzhia, as planned, and humanitarian aid could not reach the city.

Source: Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories, Iryna Vereshchuk, on Ukrainian TV

Quote: "The worst situation is in Mariupol-Zaporizhzhia. No one has been evacuated. Not a single drop of water has reached people who are exhausted from thirst."

"300,000 people today are suffering from lack of water, cold and hunger. The aggressor’s revenge is not allowing us to save them."

Details: According to Vereshchuk, there is currently only one road from Mariupol to Zaporizhzhia, via Orikhiv and Polohy, as all other roads have been destroyed or mined.

"Every day, when our humanitarian cargo sets off for the road, the aggressor fires at the cargo, fires in the direction of movement, not allowing it to pass even a kilometre," she said.

She called on the international community to investigate this crime against humanity as soon as possible, as well as to strengthen sanctions against Russia.

"We ask the international community to link the strengthening of sanctions with the failure to open up humanitarian corridors, because the aggressor is deliberately destroying the civilian population," she said.

"It is extremely surprising, to be honest, this hatred of Mariupol. I do not know why it is, and whether it makes any sense from a military point of view. But the way the people of Mariupol are tortured… By the way, there are many foreigners there - Turkish citizens, Greeks, more than 300 in all. The OSCE mission is also there with people, and they can't leave, "Vereshchuk said.

Earlier: The aggressors are constantly disrupting the planned evacuation from Mariupol, where the situation has worsened to a humanitarian catastrophe.

On the morning of 10 March, Vereshchuk announced the opening of the Mariupol-Portovske-Mangush humanitarian corridor, bypassing Nikolske-Respublika-Rozivka-Bilmak-Polohe-Orikhiv-Zaporizhzhia, with demining required along the entire route.

However, she later said that Mariupol was still blocked from evacuation.

On 10 March, Russian military forces launched a new air strike on Mariupol. At around 4.30 pm on 9 March, the aggressors dropped several powerful bombs on a children's hospital and a maternity hospital in Mariupol. All the buildings of the health care facility were completely destroyed.