ICRC representatives unable to help organize evacuation from Mariupol - Defense Ministry - TASS

Representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) showed their inability to assist in preparations for the evacuation of civilians and foreigners from Mariupol, Colonel General Mikhail Mizintsev, chief of Russia’s National Defense Management Center, said on Saturday.

"Representatives of the organization [ICRC], while declaring to the international community humane principles aimed at saving the people of Mariupol, in practice showed their inability to provide any assistance in preparing for the evacuation of civilians and foreign nationals from Mariupol," Mizintsev said.

According to the colonel general, the only excuse for the IRCR representatives is that Ukraine had failed to meet its obligations to open a humanitarian corridor in Mariupol.

"At the same time, the remaining fighters of nationalist formations did not fully observe the ceasefire during this period, but instead engaged in intensive indiscriminate fire with small arms and mortars in almost all directions, including in the alleged humanitarian corridor," he added.