Russian forces "have a clear order to hold Mariupol hostage, to torment this city" – Zelenskyy
Olha Hlushchenko Friday, 11 March 2022, 00:22
The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, reported the evacuation of 100,000 Ukrainians and that "Mariupol and Volnovakha remain completely blocked".
Source: Zelenskyy's video address
Verbatim: "One of the main tasks on today's agenda was the organisation of humanitarian corridors.
"Sumy, Trostyanets, Krasnopillya, Irpin, Bucha, Gostomel, Izyum. Almost 40,000 people have already been evacuated today. Our task was to provide them security at last. In Poltava, Kyiv, Cherkasy, Zaporizhya, Dnipro, Lviv.
"We managed to deliver humanitarian cargo. Hundreds of tons of food and medicine.
"We are doing everything to save our people in cities that the aggressor just wants to destroy. We have already evacuated about 100,00 people given the lessons learned about the humanitarian corridors' functionality during the previous two days.
"However, Mariupol and Volnovakha remain completely blocked".
Details: Zelenskyy clarified that Ukraine did everything necessary for the humanitarian corridor to work but that Russian troops failed to cease fire.
Zelenskyy "decided to send a convoy of trucks to Mariupol anyway. With food, water, medicine," nevertheless.
Russian forces still launched a tank attack exactly where this "corridor of life" was supposed to be.
Zelenskyy stressed: "They did it deliberately. They knew what they were disrupting. They have a clear order to hold Mariupol hostage, to torment it. They are constantly bombing and shelling".
