The Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories responded to the ultimatums of Russia about the capitulation of Mariupol.
This was reported by Iryna Vereshchuk, Vice-Prime Minister and Head of the Ministry for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories in the commentary for "Ukrainska Pravda."
Russia offers from 10:00 to 12:00 on Monday to organize the exit from the city of Ukrainian military and "foreign mercenaries" without weapons - in this case, they are guaranteed to save lives. After that, they promise to skip humanitarian convoys to the city and evacuate civilians from Mariupol. The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation insists on a written response from Ukraine up to 5 a.m. on Monday.
The Russian Ministry of Defense also sent the requirements to Ukraine on 8 pages to the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross, says Irina Vereshchuk.
"They hoped that international structures would react and start exerting pressure on Ukraine. This didn't happen. The ICRC and the UN understand that this is Russian manipulation, and that this is hostage-taking."
Ukraine demands that the Russian military open a corridor for civilians to be able to take them from Mariupol to Zaporizhzhia. "There can be no question of surrendering or laying down weapons. We have already informed the Russian side about this. I wrote:" Instead of wasting time on eight-page letters, just open the corridor," adds the Minister.
Iryna Vereshchuk also said that Russians kidnap children from orphanages and do not allow Ukraine to take them. "They are going to forcibly take 350 children to Russia without letting us pick them up. We ask them clearly to give us a corridor and we tell them which boarding school we are going to, and why. Then they’re immediately taking those children to Russia. This is terrorism."
Earlier, today Volodymyr Zelenskyi said that on March 20, four humanitarian corridors were working, and more than 7 thousand people were taken from Mariupol to Zaporizhzhia.