Refugees from Mariupol who reached a special point organized by the DPR Ministry of Emergency SituationsDONETSK, March 9Ukrainian militants are using the residents of Mariupol and Volnovakha as hostages, a representative of the People's Militia of the Donetsk People's Republic told RIA Novosti on Wednesday. «The militants continue to block the exit of residents from the cities of Mariupol and Volnovakha. Humanitarian corridors from these two cities have not been implemented. civilians are used as hostages and human shields,” a representative of the people’s militia of the DPR told RIA Novosti. Vice Speaker of Ukraine Iryna Vereshchuk confirmed the opening of humanitarian corridors from Energodar to Zaporozhye, from Sumy to Poltava, from Mariupol to Zaporozhye, from Volnovakha to Pokrovsk, from Izyum to Kharkiv region, from a number of cities in Kiev region to Kyiv. According to her, the military agreed to a ceasefire from 10.00 Moscow time to 22.00 Moscow time. At this time, the humanitarian corridors will be opened. Earlier on Wednesday, the head of the DPR, Denis Pushilin, said that Mariupol, the largest city on the Azov coast, was blocked, its neighborhoods were being liberated, and the DPR forces were acting «neatly and precisely.»
Ukraine turns into Somalia At the time of the proclamation of the DNR in 2014, Mariupol, whose population exceeded 450 thousand people, was the second largest settlement in the republic after Donetsk. However, in June of that year, the Ukrainian security forces regained control of Mariupol, and its eastern suburbs became one of the hottest places of conflict in Ukraine. According to the headquarters of the territorial defense of the DPR, on March 5, the troops of the republic occupied a number of settlements on the outskirts — Gnutovo, Pishchevik, Sartana, Talakovka and Shirokino. On the evening of March 7, Alexander Semyonov, deputy commander of the Vostok battalion of the DPR, said that Mariupol was completely surrounded, and a cleansing of its individual regions had begun. Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine on February 24. President Vladimir Putin called its goal «the protection of people who have been subjected to bullying and genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years.» For this, according to him, it is planned to carry out «demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine», to bring to justice all war criminals responsible for «bloody crimes against civilians» in Donbass. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the Armed Forces strike only at military infrastructure and Ukrainian troops, the civilian population is not in danger. With the support of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, the DPR and LPR groups are developing an offensive. But there is no question of the occupation of Ukraine, the Russian President emphasized.
