Moscow –
President Russia Vladimir Putin blamed Kiev for the failure to evacuate civilians from the main Ukrainian port city of Mariupol which was surrounded by Russian troops. This was conveyed by Putin when speaking with French President Emmanuel Macron by telephone.
Reported from AFP, Monday (7/3/2022), the Kremlin reported that Putin said that ‘Kiev has still not fulfilled the agreement reached on this acute humanitarian issue’. Putin made the remarks after two deals to evacuate citizens from Mariupol fell through following allegations of ceasefire violations.
Putin said “Ukrainian nationalists” prevented civilians and foreigners from leaving the port city of Mariupol and neighboring Volnovakha on Saturday (5/3) local time despite the ceasefire announcement.
“And the pause in hostilities is once again used only to build strength and means in their positions,” Putin told Macron.
Putin also assured Macron of the ‘physical and nuclear security’ of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant seized by troops Russia. He also said Russian forces were in control of Ukraine’s Chernobyl nuclear power plant encased in a giant sarcophagus after the explosion in 1986 which was the worst nuclear accident in history.
“All this was done to exclude the possibility of provocations fraught with disastrous consequences by neo-Nazis or Ukrainian terrorists,” the Kremlin said.
Meanwhile, according to the Elysee Palace, Macron and Putin spoke for 1 hour 45 minutes.
Watch the video ‘Russian Attack Failed Evacuation of Ukrainian Mariupol Citizens’:
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