Belarus: Almost no humanitarian corridor worked - Medinsky ahead of Ukraine talks

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SOT, Vladimir Medinskiy, Aide to the President of the Russian Federation (Russian): “Good afternoon, colleagues. Today, as it was agreed with the Ukrainian side, the Russian delegation arrived to start negotiations at 15:00. They are not here yet, they are a little bit late, this has already become a diplomatic tradition for Ukraine. We are waiting, we are ready to negotiate. All the same questions will be discussed. There are three blocks of questions: the issue of an internal political settlement, international humanitarian aspects and questions of a military settlement. You know that during last meeting we reached an important agreement on creation of humanitarian corridors for the exit of civilians from cities where military clashes and hostilities are taking place. The Russian side was ready to open these corridors immediately the next day. To our great regret, at the moment - of course, a ceasefire was imposed during the operating period of humanitarian corridors - but unfortunately, almost none of them has fully worked. Our side used drones to watch over each of these corridors. Nationalists didn’t allow civilians to leave the city. I don’t want to talk about this in detail, so as not to repeat what you get from the official reports of the Ministry of Defense, but I will tell you about only one small episode that happened yesterday at five o’clock in the afternoon. On the eastern outskirts of Mariupol, a city blocked by the Donbass militia, in the area of ​​Pobedy Avenue, a small group of 20-25 machine gunners from the nationalist battalion tried to leave the city via the positions of the Donetsk militia. At the same time, as in the best traditions of the Second World War, they led about 150 civilians in front of them, including children and women, they stood behind their backs. Soldiers of the Donbass infantry battalion started shouting ‘Get down!’, the so-called crossfire started and, as we all know, four civilians were killed and five were wounded from both sides. These nationalist fighters were also partially destroyed, partially they fled. Unfortunately, this is an example of how the humanitarian corridor works in the understanding of some Ukrainian leaders who are not subordinate to Kiev, not subordinate to the center, and don’t behave in accord with the laws of war and not even in accord with the laws of honour, but again I would not like to… You yourselves will find the right word to describe it. Today we will try again to discuss the mode of operation of humanitarian corridors with the Ukrainian side, since in all the cities that we promised, these corridors from the side of our army and the armed forces of Donbass are open, the fire has already been ceased in the sector and in time, and people can leave safely. Unfortunately, this does not happen. The nationalists who have seized positions in the cities continue to keep civilians there, using them indirectly and directly, as I described to you, as human shields. This is certainly a war crime that will be investigated accordingly.”

#UkrainianCrisis #Russia

Video ID: 20220307-024

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