MOSCOW, March 10 (TASS) - Russia will unilaterally open humanitarian corridors from the areas of the special military operation in Ukraine every day, Mikhail Mizintsev, chief of Russia’s National Defense Management Center, said on Thursday.
"We are saying it officially that humanitarian corridors in the direction of Russia will be unilaterally opened without any agreements from 10:00 a.m. every day, and upon agreement with the Ukrainian side in other directions," he said.
"Please note that, in order to rule out gathering of intelligence about the location of Russian Armed Forces units, every convoy will be checked for communication devices. Phones and other communication measures are allowed only for representatives of the International Red Cross Committee; they are prohibited to all other officials. Should they be discovered, they will be seized," he said.
"We draw attention of the Ukrainian side that we have reliably ascertained that during the March 10, 2022 humanitarian operations from the city of Trostyanets to Polatava and from Zaporozhye to Energodar some of the drivers of humanitarian convoy buses were replaced by officers of the Ukrainian Security Service who engaged in reconnaissance activities while driving and collected data on the locations of Russian troops," he said.
According to Mizintsev, these people tried to pass the reconnaissance data from the cities of Energodar and Sumy, but these attempts were thwarted by Russian troops.
He noted that security is guaranteed on territories controlled by Russian troops. "We ask the International Committee of the Red Cross and the United Nations to work closely with Ukrainian authorities on the ground to inform the population about this Russia’s initiative," he stressed.
He stated that the humanitarian situation in Ukraine continues to worsen.
"The civilized West and the international organizations led by it still remain distanced from the ongoing catastrophic humanitarian situation in Ukraine, while ordinary Ukrainians and foreign citizens remain victims of neo-Nazism that has effectively consumed the Kiev power," Mizintsev said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a televised address on February 24 that in response to a request by the heads of the Donbass republics he had made a decision to carry out a special military operation in order to protect people "who have been suffering from abuse and genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years." The Russian leader stressed that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories, its goals were denazification and demilitarization of that country.
When clarifying the unfolding developments, the Russian Defense Ministry reassured that Russian troops are not targeting Ukrainian cities, but are limited to surgically striking and incapacitating Ukrainian military infrastructure. There are no threats whatsoever to the civilian population.
