Russia’s defense ministry released a statement on Tuesday alleging that Russian troops had opened an evacuation corridor around the besieged Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, a claim that was rejected by a Ukrainian police officer on the ground.
“Given the catastrophic situation that has developed at the Azovstal metallurgical plant in the city of Mariupol, and also guided by purely humane principles, from 2 p.m. (2 p.m. Moscow time) on April 19, 2022, the Russian armed forces opened a humanitarian corridor for the withdrawal of Ukrainian military personnel who have voluntarily laid down their weapons and militants of nationalist formations,” the statement said. the Donetsk People’s Republic along the entire perimeter of Azovstal have withdrawn from a safe distance.”
The statement also reiterated a call for Ukrainian troops to surrender. “We realize that the commanders of Ukrainian units will not receive such orders and orders from the Kiev authorities, and urge them to make the decision themselves and lay down their arms,” the statement said.
Myhailo Vershynin, chief of the Mariupol patrol police, called the Russian conditions “unacceptable” that the Ukrainian troops are maintaining at the factory.
“No one will agree with them,” he said. “Exits, corridors, etc., they’ve announced that a thousand times.”
Vershynin said the factory in Azovstal, where Ukrainian defenders are holding out and civilians shelter, was hit with “super-powered bombs. And this will continue”.
Video of women and children supposedly sheltering in the basement of the Azovstal factory in the besieged Ukrainian port of Mariupol appeared on social media Monday evening. Vershynin said the Russians had allowed some civilians to leave, but others were reluctant to leave the city via evacuation routes leading into Russian-controlled territory.
“Those Who Stayed Inside” [Azovstal] shelters are people who categorically do not want to go to the DPR [the separatist Donetsk People’s Republic]”They want to go to Ukraine,” Vershynin said.
“That’s why we ask: Organize a corridor, the safety of the citizens must be guaranteed. The Russians believe it is fake. It is not fake. This is a real video filmed in the shelters of the factory. We can not go to all the shelters because of constant shelling. We filmed in a shelter that we could reach. And there are hundreds of such people all over the territory. They [the Russians] declare humanitarian corridors, a ceasefire. They say come out, surrender, get the civilians out of here. Those civilians who wanted to leave have left. Those who stayed will not go to the Russians. That is why we are asking for a humanitarian corridor on the Ukrainian side,” Vershynin said.
Russia claims evacuation corridors will open on Wednesday: Later on Tuesday evening, the Russian Defense Ministry issued a statement saying it was offering Ukrainian forces surrounded in the besieged city of Mariupol a ceasefire that will take effect at 2:00 p.m. Moscow time (7:00 a.m. ET) on Wednesday, and claimed that Ukrainian forces did not take advantage of an earlier offer to withdraw and lay down their arms.
The Russian statement said that at that time Russian armed forces and separatist formations of the Donetsk People’s Republic would cease combat operations along the entire perimeter of the besieged Azovstal steel plant and retreat to a safe distance.
Josh Pennington of DailyExpertNews contributed to this post.
