To provide humanitarian assistance to civilians in Mariupol, the Russian side has already delivered more than 450 tons of food and medicine, including 225 tons on Tuesday, Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev, head of the Russian National Defense Control Center, told the reporters on Tuesday.
“More than 450 tons of food, medicine and essentials have already been delivered to provide humanitarian assistance to civilians in Mariupol, including 225 tons today. Mariupol residents are being safely evacuated through open humanitarian corridors from the unblocked city,” the general said.
According to him, since Monday, Russia has been carrying out a humanitarian operation in Mariupol, unprecedented in its scale.
“At the same time, the civilian population rescued yesterday and today confirms all previously drawn conclusions about the nightmare and horrors that took place in this city,” Mizintsev said.
The general said that all approaches to the city were mined by Ukrainian nationalists, bridges were blown up. Residential areas, kindergartens and schools, medical institutions and other civilian facilities have been turned into strongholds, ammunition depots, firing points, and Mariupol residents themselves were used as a “human shield”. Under the threat of death, all able-bodied people were driven to the equipment of barricades and trenches.
The head of the Russian National Defense Control Center stated that the inhumanity and ruthlessness of the neo-Nazis towards their own civilian population is confirmed by the concept of “festung” – “fortified cities” borrowed from the Nazis.
“The special tragedy of such tactics lies in the fact that the Nazis created all the conditions for the mass destruction of civilians so as not to leave a single living witness to their monstrous crimes,” Mizintsev said.
He clarified that certain buildings and structures of Mariupol were actually wiped off the face of the earth by the national battalions and the military of Ukraine, shops were looted, monuments and objects of historical heritage were desecrated and could not be restored. He added that all past appeals of the Russian Federation to allow the civilian population to go to safe areas were ignored.
“Despite the complete unwillingness of official Kyiv to protect the civilian population from terrorist attacks by crazed nationalists, as well as the complexity of the situation, aggravated by the actions of disparate armed gangs, the Russian Federation continues to fully fulfill its humanitarian obligations,” the general stressed.
Russia delivers more than 450 tons of humanitarian aid to Mariupol residents
