Today, on 21 April 2022, we did not open a humanitarian corridor to evacuate civilians in Mariupol due to shelling by Russian troops.
This was announced by the Minister for Reintegration of the Occupied Territories, Iryna Vereshchuk.
"There is no good news about Mariupol. Everything is going very slowly. On the russians side, everything is complicated, chaotic, slow, and, of course, dishonest," - she wrote on Facebook.
Vereshchuk noted that yesterday was the first time people could leave Mariupol and go to Zaporizhzhia directly (referring to those four buses).
"We apologize to the Mariupol residents who were not evacuated today. Russians' shelling near the gathering point forced us to close the corridor. Dear Mariupol residents, please know that as long as we have any opportunities, we will not stop trying to get you out! So hold on!" - the Minister emphasized.
Today four buses from Mariupol, which left yesterday, reached Zaporizhzhia. However, yesterday the humanitarian corridor also did not work as planned because the occupiers could not ensure a proper ceasefire.
Adviser to the President's Office, Mykhailo Podoliak, and the head of the Ukrainian delegation to the negotiations with Russia, Davyd Arahamiya, said they were ready to go to Mariupol to hold negotiations on the evacuation of both civilians and Azov Regiment worriers.
The 36th Separate Marine Brigade commander, Serhiy Volyna, appealed to the President of the Federal Republic of Germany, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, and Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz to help organize an evacuation from Mariupol.