MOSCOW, April 27. /TASS/. The Kiev regime is doing everything possible to stop Ukrainian nationalists entrenched in Mariupol’s Azovstal steel plant from exiting via a humanitarian corridor, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told the Sputnik radio station on Wednesday.
"There is no clear-cut government stance which would be voiced or held by the Kiev regime in the interests of Ukrainian people which include those at Azovstal. Putting aside their actions and their ideology for now, what we’re talking about is people," she noted. "The Kiev regime has completely different plans concerning these people and it sees their role in this whole story in an entirely different way. <...> First of all, they mustn’t be allowed to leave at all. Secondly, it is essential to stall for time as long as possible in order to draw the attention of the entire world to this location," the diplomat specified.
The spokeswoman highlighted that the Kiev regime is trying to exploit the situation in its own interests so as to amplify and pin any atrocities on Moscow in the eyes of the world community, concealing the fact that a humanitarian corridor is open on a daily basis. According to her, had the authorities wanted to help these people, they would have informed them of the humanitarian corridors so that they would feel safe leaving Azovstal. "Yet, the Kiev regime gives them completely opposite orders: <...> stalling for time is needed, it is necessary to do everything in order to have this trump card up its sleeve, and a terribly blood-soaked one at that, as apparently [Ukrainian President Vladimir] Zelensky thinks, yet according to his understanding, this is a card that can be played infinitely," the diplomat added.
The battle for Mariupol began on February 25 and during the clashes, the city ended up fully boxed-in. Currently, residential blocks have been cleared of Ukrainian nationalists. Last week, over 1,300 servicemen from the Ukrainian military’s 36th Marine Brigade laid down their arms in the vicinity of the Ilyicha plant. Later, the commercial port was completely liberated and the hostages that had been trapped there were rescued. So far, the militant nationalists there have been holed up on the premises of the Azovstal plant.