As of March 17, nine humanitarian corridors have been agreed upon to evacuate residents of settlements affected by the Russian invasion. An information bureau for war prisoners has also been set up. This was announced by Deputy Prime Minister - Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories Iryna Vereshchuk.
In particular, an evacuation corridor from the city of Mariupol to the city of Zaporizhzhia has been agreed upon in the Donetsk region.
"We have asked for approval of this route and plan to send buses from the city of Zaporizhzhia to Berdyansk to gather people from Mariupol. We will also send a tank truck to refuel private cars on the route," she said.
A number of humanitarian corridors are planned in the Kyiv region:
From Borodyanka to Zhytomyr.
From the village of Shevchenkove to the city of Brovary.
"We also plan to deliver humanitarian aid in the form of food and medicine to the cities of Hostomel and Bucha, the villages of Semypolky, Markivka and Opanasiv," said Iryna Vereshchuk.
In the Kharkiv region, a humanitarian route from the city of Vovchansk to Kharkiv has been agreed upon.
According to Iryna Vereshchuk, work is underway to ensure the delivery of humanitarian aid to all settlements that are surrounded or blocked.
"We are stepping up our efforts to free captured civilians," she said.
These include the release of Dniprorudne Mayor Yevhen Matvieyev, Melitopol District Council Chairman Serhiy Pryyma, Ivankiv Mayor Tetiana Svyrydenko, Shchastya Civil City Administration Chairman Volodymyr Tiurin, Skadovsk City Council Secretary Yuriy Paliukh and SES rescuer Oleksiy Danchenko.
Iryna Vereshchuk informed that in accordance with the Geneva Convention relative to the treatment of prisoners of war, the National Information Bureau was established on March 17.
“It is determined that the state enterprise "Ukrainian National Center for Peacebuilding", which belongs to the Ministry of Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories, will be a legal entity of public law and perform the functions of the National Information Bureau. We have informed the Red Cross through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs about the establishment of such a bureau and we hope that our work will be fruitful and productive for people, families who are waiting for their children to return home from captivity," said the Deputy Prime Minister.