The President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky expressed his gratitude to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Greece who was the first European official to decide to support the work of the humanitarian corridors to Mariupol.

He mentioned this in his 23 March video message.

“Today, there are about a hundred thousand people in the city, in inhumane conditions, in a complete blockade, without water, without food, and medicine, under constant shelling, under constant bombardment.

For more than a week now, we have been trying to organize sustainable humanitarian corridors for the residents of Mariupol. And, unfortunately, almost all our attempts fail by the Russian occupiers through shelling or deliberate terrorism.

Today, one of the humanitarian columns was simply captured by the invaders on an agreed route near Mangush. The employees of the State Emergency Service and the drivers of the buses were taken prisoner.

We do everything to liberate our people and unblock the movement of humanitarian resources. That is why I am grateful that the high-level representative of a European country agrees to personally join the humanitarian mission.

We expect the implementation of this plan of the Greek Foreign Minister in the coming days.

Despite all the difficulties, today we managed to save 7026 inhabitants of Mariupol.

Tomorrow we will continue this important work.

Our representatives are trying to reach an agreement on humanitarian corridors in Kiev, Kharkov, Zaporozhye and Luhansk regions.

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It should be reminded that early in the morning of 24 February; Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the launch of a special military operation in Ukraine, aimed at ensuring the security of the Donetsk and Luhansk republics, as well as removing the “Nazi regime” in Ukraine.

The United States and the European Union have described Russia’s move as a direct aggression by Russia against Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty.

The Verkhovna Rada has declared martial law in Ukraine.