PRESS RELEASE : Iryna Vereshchuk announced the approval of three humanitarian corridors in the Zaporizhzhia region

The press release issued by the President of Ukraine on 30 March 2022.

In Ukraine, as of March 30, three humanitarian corridors have been agreed in the Zaporizhzhia region for the evacuation of Mariupol residents to Berdyansk and for the evacuation of residents of Melitopol and Enerhodar. This was announced by Deputy Prime Minister – Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories Iryna Vereshchuk.

“Three humanitarian corridors have been agreed: for evacuation of Mariupol residents and delivery of humanitarian aid to Berdyansk, delivery of humanitarian aid and evacuation of people from Melitopol, as well as for a convoy of people on their own transport from Enerhodar to Zaporizhzhia,” she said.

According to Iryna Vereshchuk, the formed convoys of buses and trucks with humanitarian aid have already left the city of Zaporizhzhia.

The Deputy Prime Minister stressed that the Ukrainian side demands that the occupying forces abide by their commitments and allow humanitarian columns through checkpoints.

She noted that on the way back to the city of Zaporizhzhia, citizens from Berdyansk and Melitopol will be able to join the humanitarian columns using their own vehicles.

“Yesterday, during the talks, the Russian delegation received proposals to organize humanitarian corridors to the 97 most affected settlements in the Kharkiv, Kyiv, Kherson, Chernihiv, Sumy, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, Luhansk and Mykolaiv regions. Today we will continue to work to get answers to these proposals,” said the Deputy Prime Minister.

She reminded that on March 29 a detonation of ammunition took place at the warehouse of the Russian Armed Forces in Belgorod, Russia. According to Iryna Vereshchuk, this is an example of the typical Russian neglect of safety and mass use of dangerous ammunition produced during World War II.

“Only yesterday, the Ukrainian General Staff warned of the threat of self-detonation of ammunition, a huge number of which Russia has piled up near the Chornobyl nuclear power plant. Russia must immediately withdraw its troops from the Chornobyl zone,” said the Deputy Prime Minister.

According to her, in the context of nuclear security, the irresponsible and unprofessional actions of the Russian military pose a very serious threat not only to Ukraine, but also to hundreds of millions of Europeans.

“Therefore, we demand that the UN Security Council take immediate measures to demilitarize the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone and establish a special UN mission there to eliminate the risk of a repeat of the Chornobyl nuclear disaster as a result of actions of the Russian occupation forces,” Iryna Vereshchuk said.