AMMAN — The Ukrainian ambassador to Jordan
Myroslava Shcherbatiuk denied that Mariupol authorities refused to allow
residents to use humanitarian corridors to leave or that the
Ukrainian government deliberately holds foreigners and civilians hostages.
اضافة اعلان
In an interview with
Jordan News, the envoy
refuted such claims allegedly made by Russian Foreign Minister
Sergei Lavrov in
Russia Today (RT) and published by a local media outlet.
Shcherbatiuk told
Jordan News that the
Ukrainian government had several rounds of negotiations with the
Russian armed forces to allow wounded people and people with special needs to leave the city,
but “they did not receive any assurances or any credible arrangements on the
ground that would allow people to leave the city”.
“The dire situation has expanded in Mariupol and
Sumy. People are unable to satisfy their basic needs and to be rescued through
safe passages out of the city,” Shcherbatiuk said.
The Guardian reported on March 7 that the Ukrainian
government had rejected the humanitarian corridors offered by Moscow, which
would have allowed civilians to leave six heavily bombed Ukrainian cities to
Russia and its ally,
Belarus.
According to the Guardian, Kremlin Spokesperson
Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow was ready to halt its military operations if
Kyiv met the Russian list of conditions, which included: ceasing military
action, changing its constitution to ensure neutrality, acknowledging
Crimea as
a Russian territory, and recognizing the self-proclaimed republics in Donetsk
and Luhansk as independent states.
Shcherbatiuk said on Al-Mamlaka TV that Ukraine does
not accept the option of humanitarian corridors to
Russia and Belarus since
they cannot guarantee the safety of people and security measures. However, she
said, the Ukrainian government could accept evacuation through Ukraine if international
organizations were present on Ukrainian territory.
According to Shcherbatiuk, the first wave of
evacuation from Sumy was to start Tuesday, at 1 pm Kyiv time (2pm Jordan time).
Civilians were to be evacuated from Sumy to Poltava,
Ukraine, and from there to
Poland, Moldova, Hungary, and Romania. Among those to be evacuated were 127
Jordanian students.
She later said that all Jordanian s who had
registered have been evacuated and have arrived at Poltava from Sumy.
“We call on Russia to agree on other humanitarian
corridors in Ukraine,” the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on its
official Twitter account.
“Our message is clear: the
Russian Federation is
again gambling with this issue pinning all the blame on the Ukrainian side. It
is impossible to establish corridors if there is no ceasefire,” Shcherbatiuk
said.
Lucjan Karpiński, the Polish ambassador to Jordan,
told
Jordan News that 1,291,279 people had crossed the Polish border
from Ukraine by March 7, of which 331 were Jordanians.
“This is the
biggest humanitarian crisis in Europe since World War II. I am proud to say
that the Polish people respond with immense kindness. For a short-term
solution, we are housing people with Polish families,” Karpiński said, adding
that some of the refugees would stay in Poland, while others would be
transferred to other
European countries, “irrespective of their nationality”.
At the same time, he said that the EU is expected to
assist with the crisis as it is a “common responsibility” to deal with long
term.
The Russian embassy in Jordan would not comment on
the issue.
So far, more than 2 million people have fled Ukraine because
of the Russian invasion, according to
UN reports.
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