Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky denounced this Wednesday (23) that Russian invaders yesterday captured a humanitarian column heading to Mariupol, where about 100,000 people live in “subhuman” conditions, and said that their representatives are moving forward in difficult, sometimes “scandalous” negotiations.
Zelensky spoke in a video released by the Ukrainian presidency in which he especially focused on the situation in Mariupol, in the south-east of the country, where he said that “there are about 100,000 people in the city in subhuman conditions, in a complete lockdown, without food, without water. , without drugs, under constant bombardment”.
The Ukrainian president added that for more than a week, attempts have been made to organize stable humanitarian corridors for the residents of Mariupol, but almost all attempts are “thwarted by the Russian occupiers through bombings or deliberate terror”.
In addition, he denounced that this Tuesday one of the humanitarian columns was “captured by the occupiers on the agreed route near Mangush”.
Despite everything, he pointed out that this Tuesday, 7,266 residents of Mariupol were rescued.
Zelensky also said that his representatives are trying to reach an agreement on humanitarian corridors in the Kiev, Kharkiv, Zaporizhia and Luhansk regions.
In this regard, he announced that an online tool has been created for all those who want to help with humanitarian items for Ukraine, “help.gov.ua”, and reported that in the last two weeks his country has received more than 100,000 tons of humanitarian aid.
On this site it is possible to know how to buy, send and to whom to direct humanitarian aid, he detailed.
Regarding the negotiations, Zelensky declared that his representatives “continue to press Russia for peace”.
“Ukrainian representatives are working on the negotiations, which continue almost daily. It is very difficult. Sometimes scandalous. But step by step we are advancing,” he said.
For his part, Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said in a videoconference at the UK’s Royal Institute of International Affairs Chatham House that Ukraine expects the agreements “primarily to provide for a ceasefire, the withdrawal of Russian troops to the territory of February 23, 2022, as well as consultations and conversations on other issues regarding the return of our territories”.
In a statement released by the Ukrainian presidency, Yermak also stressed that such agreements with Russia “should provide for the construction of a new security system for Ukraine”.
“We are ready to talk about any problem (…) Both the Donbas question and the Crimea question. And above all the question of ending the war and withdrawing Russian troops from Ukrainian territory. first of all, a conversation between the president of Ukraine and the president of Russia,” said Zelensky’s chief of staff.
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