MOSCOW, Apr 20The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation provides information on the humanitarian corridor in Mariupol, Russian Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday. go humanitarian corridors from Mariupol for civilians, the opening of which was previously agreed with the Ukrainian side. The Russian Armed Forces on Wednesday opened a humanitarian corridor for the withdrawal of Ukrainian soldiers and militants who voluntarily laid down their arms from Azovstal, the head of the National Center for Defense Control of the Russian Federation, Colonel-General, said earlier Mikhail Mizintsev. Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Iryna Vereshchuk said earlier that a humanitarian corridor from Mariupol to Zaporizhzhia will operate on Wednesday. For the previous three days, she had stated that humanitarian corridors for the evacuation of civilians would not be open. On Tuesday, the People's Militia of the DPR reported that more than 140 people were evacuated from the territory of Azovstal through organized green corridors. 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 and , on March 25, completed the main tasks of the first stage — significantly reduced the combat potential of Ukraine. The main goal in the Russian military department was called the liberation of Donbass.
