Borrell Urges To Immediately Provide Mariupol With Corridors For Civilians Evacuation

High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell has called for the immediate creation of humanitarian corridors to Mariupol, besieged by Russian troops, where several thousand Ukrainian military and tens of thousands of civilians still remain.

He published the corresponding document today, April 22, reports CNN.

"Free and safe access for those delivering humanitarian assistance must be ensured, in line with basic human rights principles and international humanitarian law," he urged.

Borrell highly appreciated the desire of the Ukrainian authorities to find diplomatic ways to resolve the issue of evacuating civilians from an almost completely destroyed city. He also regrets that Russia does not reciprocate.

The High Representative recalled that more than 100,000 civilians still remain in Mariupol, about a thousand of whom are hiding on the territory of the Azovstal plant together with the city's defenders.

We will remind, on April 20, the adviser to the head of the President's Office, Mykhailo Podoliak, and the head of the Servant of the People faction in parliament, David Arakhamia, announced their readiness to go to Mariupol for negotiations with Russia on the evacuation of residents and defenders of the city.

As Ukrainian News Agency today reported, the Minister for the Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories Iryna Vereshchuk said that Russian troops refuse to open a corridor for the evacuation of civilians from Azovstal.