Iran Press/ Europe: On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a special military operation in response to a request for help by the heads of the Donbas republics. He stressed that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories, but aimed to demilitarize and denazify the country.
Russia’s Defense Ministry announced Thursday that it will open a humanitarian corridor Friday morning from the Ukrainian city of Mariupol to Zaporizhzhia following a personal request from French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"The Russian Armed Forces will reopen a humanitarian corridor from Mariupol to Zaporizhzhia on April 1 from 10 a.m." Moscow time (0700GMT), said Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev, director of the Russian National Center for Defense Management.
Noting that humanitarian corridors are opened daily in the direction of Ukraine's capital Kyiv, Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv and Mariupol, Mizintsev said the Russian army was complying with a cease-fire at these points.
He further noted that in the last 24 hours, more than 18,000 people, including 3,400 children, were evacuated to Russia from dangerous regions of Ukraine.
The Russia-Ukraine conflict, which started on February 24, has been met with international outrage, with the European Union, US and UK among others implementing tough financial sanctions on Moscow. 219
