Mariupol: There hasn’t been an agreement with Russia on evacuation corridor at Azovstal plant

Iryna Vereshchuk said, Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine, said on Monday that no agreement had been reached with Russia on evacuation of civilians from the Azovstal steel plant, Mariupol.

“Today, the Russian side once again announced the existence of a corridor for civilians to leave Azovstal,” she said.

Russians had already broken the humanitarian corridors many times before.

Vereshchuk added, “It is important to understand that the humanitarian corridor is opened by agreement of both sides. The corridor, announced unilaterally, does not provide security, and therefore, in fact, is not a humanitarian corridor.”

She apologized and addressed the people saying that there have been no agreements on humanitarian corridors from Azovstal today.

The Russian Ministry of Defense proposed to halt all hostilities surrounding the Azovstal complex.

It a huge facility where Ukrainian forces are still holding out, so residents can evacuate “in any direction they want.”

“In particular, we ask that representatives of the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross be present in the humanitarian column,” Vereshchuk said.

“We hope for the effectiveness of the UN Secretary General’s talks with Russian representatives.”