MOSCOW, April 2. /TASS/. The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has not taken part in the evacuation of civilians via a humanitarian corridor from Mariupol to Zaporozhye, citing the organization’s unpreparedness, Colonel General Mikhail Mizintsev, chief of Russia’s National Defense Management Center, said on Saturday.
Mizintsev said that at the personal requests of French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to Russian President Vladimir Putin on March 31, the Russian Armed Forces opened an additional humanitarian corridor on April 1 and 2 to evacuate civilians from Mariupol to Zaporozhye with a waypoint on the route in the city of Berdyansk.
"It is important to note that these humanitarian operations involved the direct participation of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, as well as the International Committee of the Red Cross, which were notified in advance of the activities to be carried out," the general said. "The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees has reported unpreparedness to conduct humanitarian operations in the Mariupol direction during this period.".