Kyiv: The United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Thursday in Kyiv that the UN is doing everything possible to ensure the evacuation of civilians from the ‘apocalypse’ in the besieged port city of Mariupol. ‘Today, the people of Mariupol are in desperate need…. They need an escape route out of the apocalypse’, Guterres said.
The Mariupol city council has said about 100,000 residents across the city are ‘in mortal danger’ because of Russian shelling and unsanitary conditions, and described a ‘catastrophic’ shortage of drinking water and food. ‘Mariupol is a crisis within a crisis. Thousands of civilians need life-saving assistance. Many are elderly, in need of medical care or have limited mobility’, Guterres told reporters after the talks with Zelenskiy.
Referring to the possibility of a United Nations and ICRC-coordinated humanitarian corridor for the hundreds of civilians believed to still be in Azovstal, Guterres said. ‘As we speak, there are intense discussions to move forward on this proposal to make it a reality. I can only tell you we are doing everything we can to make it happen. I’m not going to enter into any comment that could undermine that possibility’, he said.
On April 21, nearly two months into the siege of the strategic port city, Russia declared victory in Mariupol although remaining Ukrainian forces were holding out in a vast underground complex below Azovstal, where civilians were also sheltering. Speaking alongside Guterres, Zelenskiy said, ‘I trust and believe – just as many relatives of those people who are blocked in Azovstal (steel plant) do – that the Secretary-General and we will be able to have a successful result’.
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