Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused Russia of blocking a humanitarian convoy to Mariupol and capturing several bus drivers and rescue workers. In his video address to the nation on Wednesday night, he said the convoy was supposed to bring urgently needed relief supplies to the embattled port city on the Azov Sea on Tuesday. Russia had previously approved the route. The Red Cross confirmed that a humanitarian convoy might not reach the city.
Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said the Russians arrested 11 bus drivers and four rescue workers and confiscated their vehicles. The fate of those affected is unknown. The numbers might not initially be independently confirmed.
“We are trying to organize stable humanitarian corridors for residents of Mariupol, but unfortunately almost all of our attempts are thwarted by shelling or deliberate terror by the Russian occupiers,” said Zelenskyy.
More than 7,000 people were evacuated from Mariupol on Tuesday. However, regarding 100,000 are “in inhumane conditions, under a total blockade, without food, without water, without medicine and under constant fire, under constant bombardment” in the city, he said. Before the war, around 430,000 people lived in Mariupol.