A senior Russian Defense Ministry official has said that the Ukrainian government has taken thousands of foreign nationals hostage.
According to the Pak Sahafat news agency, quoting the Tass, Mikhail Mizintsev, head of Russia’s National Defense Management Center, said on Friday that Ukrainian forces had taken more than 6,300 foreign nationals hostage from 13 foreign countries.
He said: “Ukrainian nationalists continue to hold 6,362 foreign nationals hostage as human shields. »
He also said that more than 19,600 people, including more than 3,300 children, were transported to Russia during the day from dangerous regions of Ukraine and from the republics of Lugansk and Donetsk.
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The Russian official added that the evacuation and transfer of these citizens took place despite the obstacles created by the Kyiv government.
Mizintsev said the Ukrainian side was deliberately preventing Russia from evacuating Mariupol through humanitarian corridors. According to Mizintsev, the Russian armed forces are opening humanitarian corridors from Kharkov and Mariupol every day. Apart from that, an additional humanitarian corridor is opened every day as part of the response to the humanitarian initiatives of Germany, Turkey and France from Mariupol to Berdyansk, from where they can transport by land to Crimea or Zaporozhye or by sea to other destinations.
He said that the Ukrainian side has not confirmed the security of this humanitarian corridor even once and continues to deliberately prevent the implementation of these humanitarian projects.