Residents of the occupied territories of Kursk Region, who have been asking for a humanitarian corridor for evacuation from the war zone since September, have received official responses from Russia and Ukraine. In them, the countries accused each other of unwillingness to negotiate and noted that because of this there is no possibility to organize such a corridor, the BBC Russian Service reported.
Russia’s response was provided by the Defense Ministry in the person of Kalganov, deputy commander of military unit 45880. The text says that there are currently no functioning humanitarian corridors between the countries, and “the Ukrainian leadership is not going to dialog on their opening.” At the same time, it is not possible to ensure the evacuation of the civilian population “to safe areas of the Russian Federation unilaterally”, the military department emphasized.
The response of the Ukrainian human rights ombudsman says that Russia “as a party to the conflict refuses to provide a humanitarian corridor for the evacuation of civilians from Kursk region and does not come into contact” not only with Kiev, but also “with international organizations to discuss the above-mentioned possibility.”
