We demand ICRC and UN to assist with releasing the drivers and rescuers captured by Russian forces - Iryna Vereshchuk

Kateryna Tyshchenko - Tuesday, March 22, 2022, 22:30

Ukraine demands the International Committee of the Red Cross and the United Nations to facilitate release of the evacuation drivers and State Emergency Service representatives captured by the Russians in the Mangush town, Donetsk region.

Source: Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine, Iryna Vereshchuk at the briefing

Verbatim: "11 buses and 2 vehicles of the State Emergency Service were seized at a Russian checkpoint at the entrance to Mangush town and taken away in an unknown direction."

"We do not know the fate of 11 drivers and 4 State Emergency Service representatives as of 9:15 p.m.."

"We urgently demand the International Committee of the Red Cross, the UN - who must ensure and guarantee that no State Emergency Service representatives and none of those who are declared in columns are seized in the humanitarian corridors - to urgently do everything to ensure that our people are immediately released."

Background: Earlier Iryna Vereshchuk reported that representatives of the so-called "Donetsk People's Republic" seized an evacuation column with State Emergency Service officers on an agreed route near Mangush in the vicinity of Mariupol.