Over 100 Turkish citizens are currently in Mariupol, Ukrainian authorities do not allow them to leave through humanitarian corridors, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with the RBC television channel on Wednesday.
"We regularly discuss the topic of Ukraine, including in applied terms, because there were problems with Turkish citizens who were simply held as hostages in a number of cities," he said. - "Now there are just over 100, 116, I think, Turkish citizens in Mariupol who were supposed to leave yesterday. We open corridors every day, they simply were not allowed in."
Lavrov stressed that Ankara has no questions for Russia on this matter. "They (Turkey - TASS) know that the corridors are opening, but the whole hitch is with the people who control the territories in question. They have been working with Kiev, I know, insisting that the opportunities Russia gives them are not blocked, but used," the minister pointed out.
On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a special military operation in Ukraine in response to an appeal for help from the leaders of the Donbass republics. He stressed that Moscow's plans do not include occupation of Ukrainian territories; the goal is the demilitarization and denazification of the country. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the Russian military does not strike cities, but only disables military infrastructure, so the civilian population is not threatened.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
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Based on materials from TASS