MOSCOW, August 31 (RIA Novosti) - By refusing to use humanitarian corridors in eastern Ukraine, Kiev authorities showed how they value lives of their soldiers, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s special representative for human rights, Konstantin Dolgov, said Sunday.
“Kiev’s reluctance to use humanitarian corridors to draw back forces is an indicator of the real "readiness" of the authorities to save the lives of their people," Dolgov wrote on his Twitter page.
On Thursday, self-defense forces of southeastern Ukraine announced that they surrounded Kiev’s forces outside the small town of Ilovaisk, located 22 miles away from Donetsk.
Putin urged the militia to open a humanitarian corridor to allow Ukrainian servicemen leave the area of military action and “reunite with their families.”
On Saturday, the commander of militia forces Semen Semenchenko announced the opening of safety corridors, through which Ukrainian servicemen can leave the encirclement outside the town of Ilovaisk. The Ukrainian troops were told to disarm and leave through the humanitarian corridors without their military hardware.
Kiev authorities never gave a definite answer to the initiative but ordered their troops to break out. The first group of Ukrainian servicemen left the encirclement later on Saturday, according to Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov.
