France plans to coordinate a “humanitarian operation” in Mariupol with Turkey and Greece

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MADRID, March 26. (Royals Blue) –

French President Emmanuel Macron announced this Friday that France plans to carry out a humanitarian operation together with Turkey and Greece to evacuate the people who remain in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, besieged by Russian troops.

“We are going, together with Turkey and Greece, to launch a humanitarian operation to evacuate all those who wish to leave Mariupol,” Macron said at a press conference after a European summit in Brussels, specifying that he will discuss the issue with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, with whom he will see in the coming days.

Asked about the announcement made by the Russian General Staff to focus on “the liberation of the Donbas region” in eastern Ukraine, Macron pointed out that the “objective” and “obsession” of the European Union “is a halt to fire throughout the territory”, as reported by the newspaper ‘Le Monde’.

This “humanitarian operation” has already been discussed with the mayor of Mariupol, Vadim Boichenko, and with other Ukrainian authorities, who have already given their approval, according to the French president from Brussels.

Macron has also referred at a press conference to the mechanisms to guarantee food security in the European Union after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, especially the impact it has had on agriculture and wheat reserves.

The port city has been under constant heavy fire since the beginning of the Russian invasion on February 24. Mariúpol has become one of the hardest hit by Russian forces in recent days, to the point that on March 14 the Ukrainian authorities reported that more than 2,500 people had died in the area. The UN recognizes that it is difficult to obtain clear information about what is happening.

The capture of Mariúpol, on the shores of the Sea of ​​Azov, is strategic for the military interests of the Russian forces, since it could connect by land the Crimean peninsula and the regions of eastern Ukraine that the separatist rebels have controlled since 2014.