MOSCOW, March 12. /TASS/. More than 180 people, including 26 children, left the city of Mariupol via a humanitarian corridor over the past 24 hours, Deputy Head of the People’s Militia of the Donetsk People’s Republic Eduard Basurin told Russia’s Channel One television broadcaster.

"Over the past 24 hours, 188 people, including military servicemen and 26 children, were able to exit [the city of Mariupol," Basurin said.

Russia opened 10 humanitarian corridors starting from 10:00 a.m. Moscow time on March 11. Five of them were from Kiev, Chernigov, Sumy, Kharkov and Mariupol to Russia, and another five from the same cities to Poland, Moldova and Romania via territories controlled by Kiev.

Of the 10 proposed routes, Ukraine approved only two: from Kiev and Mariupol. At the same time, the Kiev government additionally announced four more routes from the cities of Izyum, Energodar, Volnovakha and toward Zhitomir, which Russia approved.

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on February 24 that in response to a request by the heads of the Donbass republics he had made a decision to carry out a special military operation in Ukraine in order to protect people "who have been suffering from abuse and genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years." The Russian leader stressed that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories and the operation was aimed at demilitarizing and denazifying Ukraine.

When clarifying the developments unfolding, the Russian Defense Ministry reassured that Russian troops are not targeting Ukrainian cities, but are limited to surgically striking and incapacitating Ukrainian military infrastructure. There are no threats whatsoever to the civilian population.