Statement of the Joint Coordination Headquarters for Humanitarian Response in Ukraine (May 7, 2022)

Thanks to unprecedented measures taken by the leadership of the Russian Federation, with the active participation of representatives of the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross, humanitarian operation to evacuate civilians from Azovstal plant is now complete. During the period of the operation (from May 5, 2022), 51 people (18 men, 22 women, 11 children) were rescued, including one person on May 7, 2022.

Each citizen is provided with security and qualified medical and psychological assistance. Rescued civilians, accompanied by representatives of the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross, departed for selected temporary accommodation sites.

The Joint Coordination Headquarters of the Russian Federation for Humanitarian Response, in co-operation with the authorised federal executive authorities and law enforcement agencies, is carefully recording the numerous flagrant facts of the inhumane treatment of Ukrainian people by Kiev authorities:

in Seversk and Serebryanka settlements of the Donetsk People's Republic, the Kiev regime carried out yet another sophisticated action to discredit the Russian Armed Forces before the world community. During the provocation, fighters of nationalist battalions dressed in Russian uniforms and driving armoured vehicles with "Z" sign fired on private houses, forcibly took valuables and personal vehicles from people, and physically assaulted civilians who showed the slightest resistance. Foreign and Ukrainian journalists accompanying the nationalists filmed and photographed staged "acts of looting" allegedly committed by Russian servicemen, to be published in the Ukrainian and world media after the liberation of these towns by the Russian Armed Forces;

in Pokrovskiy district of the Donetsk People's Republic, Ukrainian armed formations have mined the dam of Kurakhovskaya thermal power plant reservoir, which the nationalists plan to blow up, blaming "allegedly advancing units of the Russian troops". If this cynical "scenario" takes place, more than ten settlements with about seven thousand inhabitants would be in the flood zone. Due to the lack of the necessary volume of water in the reservoir, accidents will occur in the TPP cooling system, causing power outages in most of the Donetsk People's Republic, as well as in Zaporozhye and Dnepropetrovsk regions. In addition, after the water leaves, the entire flooded area the population's life support system (sewage, water supply, water treatment facilities with chemical tanks) will be damaged, which will lead to a sharp deterioration of the sanitary and epidemiological situation and the spread of infectious diseases in Pokrovskiy and the surrounding areas.

Moreover, on May 8, 2022, during the Day of Memory and Reconciliation celebrated in Ukraine (established instead of the Day of Victory of the Soviet People in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945), the Kiev regime plans to carry out another sophisticated provocation with the deaths of civilians in the western regions of the country to subsequently accuse the Russian Armed Forces of launching missile attacks. For this purpose, AFU units will launch Tochka-U missile attacks on crowded places in Lvov and Volynskaya regions, as they have already done at the railway station in Kramatorsk.

These provocations by the Ukrainian authorities, prepared with the full approval of Western handlers, demonstrate Kiev's complete indifference to the fate of its own citizens.

We emphasize once again that in carrying out the tasks of the special military operation, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, unlike the armed formations of Ukraine, treat the local population extremely humanely and do not strike at civilian infrastructure.

We warn the so-called civilised West in advance that the above and other similar inhumane actions fabricated by the Ukrainian authorities according to Bucha script about alleged "Russian atrocities" are soon to be widely spread through the Western media and on various Internet resources. Meanwhile, the world media continue to ignore the obvious facts of the Ukrainian nationalist atrocities and do not care about the real state of affairs, they simply carry out the order to further the course of fomenting anti-Russian hysteria around the obviously fabricated events.

Despite all the difficulties and obstacles posed by Kiev, over the past 24 hours, without the involvement of the Ukrainian authorities, 18,583 people, including 1,841 children, have been evacuated from dangerous areas of the Donetsk and Lugansk people's republics and Ukraine to the Russian Federation. Since the beginning of the special military operation, a total of 1,165,957 people have been evacuated, including 205,640 children. The state border of the Russian Federation was crossed by 150,971 personal vehicles including 2,385 per day.

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 dealt with on an individual basis and are promptly assisted with various pressing issues relating to onward accommodation, employment assistance, places for children in kindergartens and educational institutions, and the provision of entitlements to social benefits.

A significant part of the population forcibly detained by radicals in Ukrainian cities is looking for any opportunity to evacuate to Russia, as evidenced by numerous appeals by citizens through various channels, including the hotlines of the Russian Federation Joint Coordination Headquarters for Humanitarian Response, federal executive authorities, subjects of the Russian Federation and various public organisations. In the past 24 hours alone, 117 requests were received from Ukrainian citizens to evacuate to Russia, the Donetsk and Lugansk people's republics, as well as to the Russian Armed Forces-controlled areas of Zaporozhye, Nikolaev, Kharkov and Kherson regions.

In total there are 2,754,963 such appeals from 2,135 locations in Ukraine in the database.

In addition, 75 foreign vessels from 17 countries remain blocked in 7 Ukrainian ports (Kherson, Nikolaev, Chernomorsk, Ochakov, Odessa, Yuzhniy and Mariupol). 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.

Detailed information in English and Russian on the modus operandi of the maritime humanitarian corridor is broadcast daily every 15 minutes on VHF radio on 14 and 16 international channels in English and Russian.

At the same time, the Kiev authorities continue to avoid engaging with representatives of states and ship-owning companies to resolve the issue of ensuring the safe passage of foreign vessels to the assembly area.

The danger to navigation from Ukrainian mines drifting off their anchors along the coasts of Black Sea states remains.

The Russian Federation is taking a full range of comprehensive measures to ensure the safety of civilian navigation in the waters of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.

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 Transport of the Russian Federation, Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation, Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media of the Russian Federation, Federal Service for State Registration, Cadastre and Cartography, Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, Federal Agency for Nationalities, Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States, Compatriots Living Abroad and International Humanitarian Cooperation, Federal Agency for Youth Affairs;

republics of Bashkortostan, Buryatia, Karelia, Crimea, Tatarstan, Altai, Trans-Baikal, Krasnodar and Primorsky Territories, Arkhangelsk, Belgorod, Bryansk, Kursk, Moscow, Rostov, Tula and Chelyabinsk regions and Moscow city;

Among political parties and non-profit organisations: United Russia, the People's Front All-Russian Public Movement, the All-Russian Public Organisation of Veterans "Battle Brotherhood", the Russian Humanitarian Mission, the Russian Union of Russian Women, the Almaz-Antey Military Defence Concern, and interregional public organisation Federation of Military Tactical Games.

For a great part of the Ukrainians, forgotten and betrayed by their own government, Russian humanitarian aid remains virtually the only way to survive.

More than 23,000 tonnes of basic necessities and food kits, including baby food and life-saving medicines, have been prepared at collection points.

Since March 2, 18,435.6 tons of humanitarian cargo have already been delivered to Ukraine, 981 humanitarian actions have been carried out, including 6 actions in Kherson region, as well as in Donetsk and Lugansk people's republics, during which 405 tons of basic necessities, medicines and food were transferred to the civilian population of the liberated areas.

On May 7, 2 humanitarian actions have been planned and are currently being carried out in Kherson region, in Donetsk People's Republic, during which 95 tons of basic necessities, medicine and food will be distributed.