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Russia cannot hand Ukraine a database of those willing to evacuate fearing for their lives

Mizintsev said that the Russian database contains 2,541,367 pleas

MOSCOW, March 8. /TASS/. Russia cannot hand over to Ukraine the database of those who want to evacuate to Russia for fears of reprisals against them, Mikhail Mizintsev, the chief of the Russian National Defense Management Center and the head of the interagency humanitarian response taskforce, said on Tuesday.

Mizintsev said that the Russian database contains 2,541,367 pleas that have come through various communication channels from Ukrainian citizens and foreigners, who ask to rescue and evacuate them from 1,917 settlements in Ukraine.

"If we had elementary confidence in the Ukrainian authorities, we would be able to hand them this database to dissipate speculations that nobody wants to come to the Russian Federation," he said. "However, we cannot do so for obvious reasons. As soon as the database comes into possession of nationalists, all Ukrainian citizens who have asked for help will be persecuted, humiliated, tortured or shot dead."

Mizintsev pointed out that for the same reason Russia does not want to hand the information to UN representatives, "since detailed information about the Ukrainian nationals may also fall into the hands of nationalists."

"Were UN representatives to have this factual information, they would stop accusing Russia of non-compliance with its humanitarian obligations and would stop claiming that there are no Ukrainians and foreign citizens who want to go to Russia, as UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths announced officially yesterday," he said.

Mizintsev added that the "database contains the names, surnames and addresses of these people, their heartbreaking stories about the difficult humanitarian situation, about the horrors and atrocities perpetrated by nationalists, murders, physical violence and illegal arrests."

"This database will become direct evidence of lawlessness and crimes of the Kiev authorities against the citizens of Ukraine," he concluded.