Foreign mercenaries in Ukraine can leave Mariupol through humanitarian corridors under the guise of civilians. This assumption was made on March 4 by the representative of the People’s Militia of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) Eduard Basurin.
“Maybe they (foreign mercenaries) will want to do, you know, they will want to go out through these humanitarian corridors, change into some other clothes, make themselves wounded, injured,” he said on the air of the Russia 24 channel.
Earlier in the day, Human Rights Ombudsman in the Russian Federation Tatiana Moskalkova said that Moscow receives a large number of requests from those wishing to leave Ukraine and come to Russia, but the exit corridors created are being attacked by Ukrainian security forces.
The day before, March 3, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that mercenaries and nationalists in Ukraine are using civilians and foreign citizens as human shields. The head of state recalled that Russian servicemen provided humanitarian corridors in all collision zones so that civilians had the opportunity to go to a safe place, but the nationalists did not allow this.
Also on Thursday, Mikhail Mizintsev, head of the National Defense Control Center of the Russian Federation, said that a humanitarian catastrophe was imminent in Mariupol.
As Basurin specified, the Armed Forces of Ukraine do not allow residents of Mariupol to leave the city. He also noted that in the event of a breakthrough in the defense of the city by units of the Russian Armed Forces, the nationalists plan to undermine the buildings of the Azovstal plant in order to accuse the Russian side of killing civilians.
On March 2, Basurin said that Ukrainian security forces were forcibly detaining over 60 people in a school in Mariupol. Most of them are women and children. Also, according to information from the teachers of the Azov State Technical University, the Ukrainian military mine the building of the university and the approaches to it. On the same day, it became known that the DPR troops blocked Mariupol.
On February 24, Russia launched an operation to protect the civilian population of Donbass. As the press secretary of the head of state, Dmitry Peskov, then specified, the special operation has two goals – the demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine. According to him, both of these aspects pose a threat to the Russian state and people.
Prior to that, on February 21, Putin signed decrees recognizing the independence of the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics (DNR and LNR), as well as treaties of friendship, cooperation and mutual assistance with the republics. The documents were ratified the next day.
The head of state made the relevant decisions against the backdrop of the aggravation of the situation in Donbass that began on February 17. The DPR and LPR reported heavy shelling by Ukrainian security forces, including from heavy weapons. The republics announced a general mobilization and evacuation of civilians to the territory of Russia.
For more up-to-date videos and details about the situation in Donbass, watch the Izvestia TV channel.