The Russian President, Vladimir Putinadmitted today that the situation in the Ukrainian city of Mariupolbrutally besieged for weeks by the Russian Army, is “tragic” when meeting with the secretary general of the ONUAntonio Guterres.
“The situation there is difficult and, it may be, even tragic,” Putin said during the meeting in the Kremlin.
Putin stressed that in the telephone conversation held on Tuesday with the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, he blurted out that “military actions are taking place” in Mariupol.
“There are no military actions there. They are over,” he insisted, recalling that almost 1,300 Ukrainian soldiers laid down their arms and surrendered.
He stressed that the Azovstal steel mill, the last bastion of resistance where some 1,000 civilians and an undetermined number of combatants are refugees, is “completely isolated.” “I have given the order not to carry out any assault action,” he noted.
Putin says humanitarian corridors work
In addition, he stressed that the Russian Army has asked the combatants in Azovstal to surrender and recalled that with the Mariupol soldiers who surrendered “nothing has happened.”
“It is a crime to retain civilians as human shields, if there are any,” he said.
In turn, Putin rejected that, as Guterres said, the humanitarian corridors opened by Russia do not work.
“They have been misinformed. They work. More than 100,000 have left Mariupol with our help. Some 130,000 or 140,000 have left. And they can go wherever they want,” he said.
In this regard, Guterres was willing to mobilize the logistical and human resources of the United Nations to alleviate the suffering of civilians in Mariupol, located in the Donetsk region.
Guterres also called on Russia to solve its problems with Ukraine exclusively within the framework of the UN, calling the ongoing Russian military campaign in Ukraine an “invasion.” (EFE)