Zelensky accuses Moscow of an “attack” on a humanitarian corridor

© KEYSTONE/AP/Vadim Ghirda

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday accused the Russian army of preventing the evacuation of civilians from the surrounded towns of Mariupol and Volnovakha. According to him, Russian troops carried out an attack on the planned route of a humanitarian corridor.

They “did not cease fire. Despite everything, I decided to send a convoy of vehicles to Mariupol, with food, water, medicine […] But the occupiers launched a tank attack exactly where this corridor was supposed to pass,” he said, in a video address published by the presidency.

“This is assumed terror, brazen terror, from experienced terrorists. The whole world needs to know that,” he continued. The Ukrainian leader said that around 100,000 people had been able to leave in the past two days from other Ukrainian cities plagued by fighting, including 40,000 people on Thursday alone, via humanitarian corridors.

Corridors to Russia

The Russian army maintains the siege of several major Ukrainian cities and continues its bombardments, like the one that hit a children’s hospital and a maternity hospital on Wednesday in Mariupol, a strategic port on the Sea of ​​Azov besieged for ten days.

Moscow promised on Thursday the daily opening of humanitarian corridors to allow Ukrainians fleeing the fighting to reach Russia.

But Ukraine, for its part, is demanding the establishment of secure passages within its borders and not towards the country which is bombarding its population.