Statement of the Joint Coordination Headquarters for Humanitarian Response in Ukraine (April 8, 2022)
The Russian Federation, guided exclusively by the principles of international humanitarian law, is continuing its large-scale measures to provide comprehensive assistance to the population in the Donetsk and Lugansk people's republics, as well as in the controlled areas of Ukraine.
The Russian Armed Forces provide humanitarian routes in the Kharkov and Mariupol directions daily from 10:00 a.m. (Moscow time) and, in response to humanitarian initiatives by Germany, Turkey and France to evacuate civilians and foreign nationals from Mariupol, also provide humanitarian routes daily (from March 31, 2022) open an additional humanitarian corridor to Berdyansk and onwards in two directions: the first by land transport to the Republic of Crimea or Zaporozhye (to Kiev-controlled territories), the second by sea transport to selected destinations. At the same time, the Ukrainian side has never confirmed the security guarantees of the humanitarian corridor in question and continues to deliberately obstruct the implementation of these humanitarian initiatives.
If necessary, the Russian side is ready to deploy humanitarian corridors in any other directions as soon as possible and to ensure the safe evacuation of civilians.
Of the ten humanitarian corridors in the Zaporozhye and Donetsk directions announced by the Ukrainian side for the current day, once again there is none towards Russia.
On all routes, including those declared by the Ukrainian side, the Russian Armed Forces continue to comply with their commitments to observe the ceasefire.
The most acute issue today remains the condition of Russian servicemen in captivity.
The countries of the so-called "civilised West", the United Nations, the OSCE, the International Committee of the Red Cross, as well as other international human rights organisations, showing complete indifference to humanitarian issues initiated by the Russian Federation, have so far shown no reaction to the Russian side's allegations of horrific torture and brutal massacres of Russian prisoners of war.
Moreover, on April 7, 2022, at a press conference in Brussels, the NATO Secretary General called for an investigation of all reports of war crimes in Ukraine, but hypocritically refused to comment on video footage of Ukrainian nationalists killing Russian POWs - "because he knows nothing concrete about it". Although the day before, on April 6, 2022, the US publication The New York Times confirmed the authenticity of video footage showing Ukrainian nationalists shooting wounded Russian servicemen.
The Russian Federation takes a daily initiative to the Ukrainian side to exchange prisoners.
On April 5, 2022, an agreement was reached with the Ukrainian side to exchange 251 servicemen. Within 24 hours, the number of prisoners of war was steadily declining. As a result, the list agreed at the last stage included only 38 servicemen, which was rejected by the Ukrainian side without explanation.
At the same time, the Russian Federation trained 251 Ukrainian POWs in full, including transporting them to the source area for the exchange.
During April 6 and 7, 2022, the Russian side declared an exchange format of 251 people for 251, while the Ukrainian side kept reducing the lists and eventually rejected the exchange.
The prisoner-of-war exchange planned for April 8, 2022, due to the fault of the Ukrainian side, once again failed to take place. The Ukrainian authorities overnight repeatedly changed the format of the exchange and reduced the number of prisoners of war declared for exchange, planned exchange was subsequently rejected by the Ukrainian side also without explanation.
Such inconsistent behaviour by the Kiev authorities once again confirms their blatant indifference to the fate of specific people - members of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
Furthermore, these facts indicate a deliberate concealment by the Kiev authorities of the true state of health of the captured Russian servicemen, as well as the conditions of their detention.
The behaviour of the International Committee of the Red Cross in this matter is alarming, as they are also unresponsive and almost indifferent to all appeals from the Russian Federation.
Once again, we draw attention to the blatant bias and one-sided coverage of events in Ukraine by international organizations and the media of the so-called "civilized world". On the one hand there is the overblown hysteria around the obviously fabricated events in Bucha, and on the other hand there is total silence about the concrete testimonies of the Russian servicemen released from captivity about the numerous atrocities committed by the neo-Nazis. It all looks like a conspiracy against Russia.
The Russian Federation, for its part, treats Ukrainian prisoners of war in strict compliance with international humanitarian law. They are held in decent conditions, receive three meals a day and are provided with timely and qualified medical care. They are not subjected to violence or psychological pressure. Everyone is given the opportunity to contact relatives.
Given the documented numerous facts of flagrant violations of the Geneva Convention, testifying to the inhuman treatment of Russian prisoners of war, the Russian Federation is making every effort to ensure that real, truthful information about the atrocities of the Kiev regime becomes known to the entire civilized world. To this end, all reports of crimes committed by the Ukrainian armed forces and nationalist battalions are carefully recorded and the summarised materials are sent to international organisations, including the UN, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the OSCE and foreign embassies.
The Russian Federation's Joint Coordination Headquarters for Humanitarian Response, in co-operation with the authorised federal executive authorities, continues to carefully record the continuing egregious facts of the inhumane treatment of civilians by the authorities in Kiev.
Here are just some of them over the past day:
In Kramatorsk, the Ukrainian armed forces set up firing positions in schools and kindergartens on Yubileynaya Street and deployed heavy weapons. Local residents were forced under threat of being shot to build fortifications around multi-storey blocks of flats, dig trenches and create fortified neighbourhoods. Furthermore, today the Ukrainian authorities carried out a ruthless act of destruction of their own people at the railway station in Kramatorsk with a Tochka-U missile with a cluster warhead. What makes this atrocity all the more cynical is that, under the pretext of an evacuation, local authorities had gathered people in the area around the railway station well in advance;
An inhumane provocation in Avdeevka was fully prepared by militant nationalist formations, with mass poisoning of residents in adjacent areas with toxic chemicals. For this purpose, the neo-Nazis booby-trapped storage facilities containing toxic chemicals at the coke plant, which they plan to blow up when Donetsk People's Republic formations approach the city;
In Kharkov, the local population remaining in the city is intimidated by militant nationalist groups who open fire on civilians who have fled their shelters in search of food and basic necessities.
Such actions by Kiev once again demonstrate an inhuman attitude towards the fate of its own citizens and show a complete disregard for all norms of morality and international humanitarian law.
At the same time, Western countries are not only aware of Kiev's gross violations of the Geneva Convention, but are also trying to help the Ukrainian authorities cover up all their cynical crimes against their own people.
Despite all the difficulties and obstacles imposed by the Ukrainian side, over the past day, without the participation of Kiev, 19,612 people were evacuated from dangerous areas, 3,356 of them children, and in total, since the beginning of the special military operation, 677,758 people have already been evacuated, of which 131,706 are children.
The state border of the Russian Federation was crossed by 86,980 vehicles, of which 2,920 per day.
In Mariupol, also without any involvement from the Ukrainian side, 133,214 people have already been rescued from the lawlessness of the nationalists, including 758 in the past 24 hours.
A daily analysis of appeals by Ukrainian citizens to the hotline of the Joint Coordination Headquarters of the Russian Federation for humanitarian response in Ukraine, to federal executive authorities, various public organizations, as well as constituent entities of the Russian Federation, to family, friends and acquaintances living in Russia shows that a significant part of the population forcibly held by nationalists in Ukrainian cities is still seeking any opportunity to evacuate to Russian territory.
Over the past day, another 917 such appeals have been received, and in total there are already 2,742,698 of 2,126 settlements in Ukraine in the database.
Ukrainian nationalists continue to hold 6,362 foreign nationals from 13 countries hostage as human shields.
Furthermore, 77 foreign vessels from 18 countries remain blocked in Ukrainian ports. The threat of shelling and high mine danger created by official Kiev in its internal waters and territorial sea prevents vessels from safely leaving the ports and reaching the open sea.
In confirmation of this, the Russian Federation is opening daily from 08:00 to 19:00 (Moscow time) a humanitarian corridor, which is a safe lane south-west of Ukraine's territorial sea, 80 nautical miles long and 3 nautical miles wide.
Information on the operation of the Maritime Humanitarian Corridor is announced in navigational warnings through the World Navigation Alert Service (Area 3, Cadiz, Spain).
Every 15 minutes every day on international VHF radio channels 14 and 16, the Russian Navy transmits messages in English and Russian containing detailed information on the operation of the Maritime Humanitarian Corridor.
At the same time, the Kiev authorities continue to fail to acknowledge and shy away from engaging on the issue of ensuring the safe passage of foreign vessels to the assembly area.
The Russian Federation is taking a full range of exhaustive measures to ensure civilian navigation in the Black Sea, the Sea of Azov and the Mediterranean.
In addition, on April 8, 2022, the Russian side handed over the rescue vessel Sapphire to Ukraine free of charge and without any conditions in the transfer area agreed in advance with the International Maritime Rescue Service (RR-2).
Once again, we call on the International Maritime Organization and the management of ship-owning companies to influence official Kiev to take measures aimed at unblocking and securing the departure of foreign vessels from Ukrainian ports.
More than 9,500 temporary accommodation centres continue to operate in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation and are fully equipped with recreational facilities and hot meals. The refugees are treated individually and provided with qualified medical and psychological assistance.
A sufficient number of buses have been placed at the border crossing points to transport people to their chosen places of residence or to temporary accommodation centres.
Federal executive authorities, together with the subjects of the Russian Federation, various public organizations, patriotic movements, continue to accumulate humanitarian aid.
The greatest contributors to the relief effort were:
Ministry of the Russian Federation for Civil Defence, Emergencies and Elimination of Consequences of Natural Disasters, Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation, Federal Forestry Agency, Federal Agency for Nationalities;
Republics of Buryatia and Tatarstan, Belgorod, Irkutsk, Kursk, Moscow and Sakhalin regions;
Among political parties and non-profit organisations: United Russia, the All-Russian Public Movement "People's Front", the All-Russian Public Organisation of Veterans "Battle Brotherhood", the autonomous non-profit organisation for the support of humanitarian programmes "Russian Humanitarian Mission", the All-Russian Public Organisation "Russian Boxing Federation", the Charity Foundation "Pro Life" and the All-Russian Public and Public Organisation "Russian Union of Women".
More than 22,500 tons of basic necessities, food and medicines have been prepared at the collection points.
Since March 2, 9,780.3 tons of humanitarian cargo have already been delivered to Ukraine, 772 humanitarian actions have been carried out, including 6 actions in Kherson region, as well as in Donetsk and Lugansk people's republics, during which 259 tons of basic necessities, medicines and food were transferred to the civilian population of the liberated areas.
On April 8, 10 humanitarian actions have been planned and are currently being carried out in Kherson region, in Donetsk and Lugansk people's republics, during which 197 tons of basic necessities, medicine and food will be distributed.