Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal has said that, according to International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) President Peter Maurer, the ICRC will return its representative to Kyiv.
“Had a telephone conversation with the President of the ICRC Peter Maurer. Received positive signal! The Red Cross representatives are returning to Kyiv. Our top priority now is to deliver humanitarian aid to the surrounded cities and evacuate people urgently,” Shmyhal said on Twitter.
The Ukrainian Red Cross Society has no right to independently organize humanitarian corridors for the removal of civilians, its press service told Interfax-Ukraine on Monday. “The Red Cross Society of Ukraine does not have an independent right to organize ‘green corridors’, but it helps local and state authorities in coordinating the evacuation of civilians,” Director General of the National Committee of the Red Cross Society of Ukraine Maksym Dotsenko, whose words are quoted in a press release, said.
He said that in some cases, the Red Cross Society of Ukraine helps local and state authorities in coordinating the evacuation of civilians, while the International Committee of the Red Cross, with the potential and appropriate contacts with all parties to the conflict, organizes “green corridors” for evacuation.
“The International Committee of the Red Cross is ready to fulfill its role of a neutral intermediary and provide support within its capabilities,” the statement said.
“The Red Cross Society of Ukraine, as an absolutely neutral humanitarian organization, also notes the need for a bilateral agreement between the parties to the armed conflict for the provision of humanitarian assistance and the removal of the civilian population through ‘green corridors “, the organization said.
The Ukrainian state asks the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to urgently take the necessary steps to organize humanitarian corridors and is ready, for its part, to do everything necessary to evacuate the civilian population and deliver humanitarian supplies.
Settlements in the areas of hostilities that require the creation of humanitarian corridors are located in Sumy region (Sumy, Shostka, Romny, Konotop, Okhtyrka), Chernihiv region (eastern and northern parts), Kharkiv region (all of the region except the south-eastern parts), Kyiv (Bucha, Irpin, Vyshgorod, Ivankiv, Vasylkiv, Borodianka), Mykolaiv region (Bashtansky, Snihuriv, Bereznehuvatsky directions), Zaporizhia region (Tokmatsky, Berdiansk, Velykobilozersky directions), Kherson (Chaplynka, Kalanchak, Henichesk and Nova Kakhovka directions), Luhansk and Donetsk regions (Volnovakha district, Mariupol district), etc.
The Ukrainian side is ready to ensure the transportation of people and the delivery of humanitarian goods. The Ukrainian Armed Forces guarantee safe passage of the corridor. Ukraine is expecting this from the Russian side.
