The evacuation route from Mariupol was mined. That's according to Dominik Stillhart, director of operations for the International Committee of the Red Cross. He spoke to BBC Radio 4 Today about the problems with the so-called humanitarian corridors for the evacuation of civilians from bombed-out Ukrainian cities.

The Red Cross talked for days with both sides, but the result was only agreements in principle, which were violated immediately because the roads were not precisely defined, nor who could cross them. He illustrates his words with an example. Officials of the International Red Cross, who were trying to leave Mariupol on Sunday on the approved route, realized that the road was actually mined.

It also turns out that some of the humanitarian corridors opened by the Russian military allow people to enter only the territory of Belarus or Russia, the Russian edition of BBC. The evacuation routes, published by the Russian news agency RIA Novosti, show that the corridor from Kyiv includes people leaving for Belarus, and from Kharkiv - only a corridor leading to Russia.

The corridors from Mariupol and Sumy provide access to both Ukrainian cities and Russia, AFP reported.

A spokesman for Volodymyr Zelensky called it “immoral” and British Minister James Cleverly called it “cynical to infinity”.

French President Emmanuel Macron also reacted by saying he did not want corridors to Russia, the French channel BFMTV reported.

“The President of the Republic neither wanted nor received corridors to Russia after his conversation with Vladimir Putin,” the Elysee Presidential Palace told BFMTV.

“The president of the republic insists on allowing the civilian population to leave the country and to allow the transportation of aid,” they added.

There is still no independent information on whether the evacuation has begun.

This is the second large-scale opening of roads for the evacuation of the civilian population after the first attempt on Saturday failed under fire from the Russian military.

/OFFNews

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