Pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine say they were able to evacuate 300 civilians from Mariupol despite “provocations by Ukrainian nationalists”.
According to the pro-Russian rebels who have their headquarters in Donetsk, they are attacking the humanitarian corridors.
The evacuated civilians were able to leave Mariupol and the outskirts of that city, according to Russian media, eastwards to the Novoazovsky district. However, the evacuations failed on Saturday.
Russian soldiers and militias failed to observe a ceasefire. According to the Russian side, this was because radical “Ukrainian nationalists” thwarted the evacuations.
A Donetsk militia leader, Eduard Basurin, called on Ukrainian military commanders to instruct their subordinates to leave the exodus routes alone and not block them.
