View of Mariupol. File photoUN, Apr 28UN Secretary General António Guterres did not name possible dates for the evacuation of civilians from Mariupol, so as not to harm the process. At a press conference following negotiations with Vladimir Zelensky, Guterres was asked what the UN would do if the Russian Federation violated the «principle to which it agreed.» The secretary general's office previously claimed that Russian President Vladimir Putin, at a meeting with Guterres in Moscow, «in principle» agreed to the participation of the UN and the ICRC in the evacuation of civilians from the Azovstal plant. Later, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that there were no specific agreements on involving the UN and the ICRC in the evacuation of civilians from Azovstal at the meeting between Putin and Guterres.
The MP called Putin's meeting with Guterres a conversation about trust against the backdrop of lies»What do you want? Do you want to save people? Or do you want me to say something that will become an obstacle to such salvation? At the moment I can only tell you that we are doing everything in our power to make this happen. I am not going to delve into any comments that could undermine this possibility,» Guterres said, answering a question from a journalist. According to him, his main priority is saving people. Asked about the timing of the evacuation, the secretary general said: «Once again: I work with only one goal — not to shine in the media. I am very boring for the media, because the only way to ensure the salvation of people is to be boring for the media — we already have enough difficulties.” At the time of the proclamation of the DPR in 2014, Mariupol, with a population of about 450,000 people, was the second city of the republic after Donetsk, but in June of that year, Ukrainian security forces regained control of Mariupol. On March 7, 12 days after the start of the Russian special operation to demilitarize Ukraine, the deputy commander of the Vostok battalion, Alexander Semenov, announced that the city was surrounded, a cleansing of its individual areas had begun. and neo-Nazis from the Azov regiment (against whose militants a criminal case has been initiated in Russia), the entire city territory was cleared. The remnants of the Ukrainian group are blocked at the Azovstal metallurgical plant. 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 Kyiv 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 the military infrastructure and Ukrainian troops and, as of March 25, they have completed the main tasks of the first stage — they have significantly reduced the combat potential of Ukraine. The main goal in the Russian military department was called the liberation of Donbass.
