Russia Denounces Ukraine at UN Over Humanitarian Corridors

Russia's representative to the United Nations, Vasily Nebenzia, on Monday singled out Ukraine for preventing the proper functioning of humanitarian corridors set up by Moscow to evacuate Ukrainian and foreign residents from risk areas.

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The Russian official explained that at the request of French President Emanuel Macron, President Putin ordered a ceasefire to the Russian Armed Forces to open humanitarian corridors from Ukrainian cities of Kiev, Mariupol, and Sumy to Russian territory for those who want to leave the territory.

"That was confirmed earlier with Kiev, with the specialized agencies, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the Red Cross and other international organizations through all available communication resources including communication, however, the response of Kiev official was received today (Monday) and the open corridors were ignored," the diplomat asserted.

Similarly, the Russian diplomatic representative denounced that the Ukrainian cities do not cooperate with the evacuation despite the complicated humanitarian situation worsening in such cities as Kiev, Mariupol and Kharkov.

Regarding the words of Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshuk who called the humanitarian corridors absurd, Nebenzia stressed that Kiev is exhausting available and unavailable means because "they are afraid that these people will tell the truth of what is happening in Ukraine" and how they are terrorized and even killed by radicals.

The Russian diplomat also quoted the words of the mayor of Sumy, Alexander Lysenko who stressed that there will be no green corridors and threatened to open fire on the civilian who intends to leave and go as a refugee to Russia.

"About the impossibility of evacuating Ukrainian citizens to Russia, Ukrainian officials ignore that even before the special military operation there were refugees in Russia. More than 168,000 people had been evacuated to Russia including 43,000 children," said Nebenzia, who also added that in the last 24 hours about 19,000 vehicles have crossed the borders.

The Russian side revealed that temporary reception points are being set up on its territory to receive refugees arriving from Ukraine.

 Nebenzia dismissed as absurd Kiev's request to evacuate Ukrainians who are residing in areas under the control of the Russian army: "These people have not asked for evacuation, people are in their homes and are not threatened by anything," he said.

"The request for evacuation from cities under Russian control, we find it cynical even with the residents of those cities themselves because they are under the full control of the Russian army and have received everything they need. More than 500,000 tons of supplies have arrived from Russia," asserted Moscow's representative to the UN.

The diplomat denounced to the UN that in the city of Mariupol alone 200,000 civilians have been trapped between Ukrainian extremist forces preventing humanitarian aid workers from arriving to provide assistance.

 "Russia and Ukraine agreed on parameters for humanitarian corridors, which was reported to the UN. However, radicals in the city of Mariupol violated the agreement and received orders to shoot at legs," Nebenzia warned.

According to the Russian representative to the UN, in Mariupol, the extremists forced the staff of a maternity hospital to leave and set fire to the hospital, and also destroyed one of the kindergartens.

 In this sense, the official stated that the situation is serious also in other areas of the country, where the blockade and violent actions by nationalist battalions persist.