Ukraine should demine its ports as soon as possible, Russian President Vladimir Putin said during a telephone conversation with Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer.
“At the request of the Austrian chancellor, the Russian president assessed the situation in the context of the ongoing special military operation to defend Donbass and informed him about the efforts to ensure safe navigation in the Black and Azov Seas,” the Kremlin press service said.
“In this context, it was stressed that the Ukrainian side should demine its ports as soon as possible to ensure free passage of the blocked ships,” the Kremlin said.
The Russian president also drew Nehammer’s attention to Kiev’s unwillingness to deal in discussions with Moscow.”It was noted that Kiev is stonewalling the negotiating process between Russian and Ukrainian representatives,” he said.
According to earlier reports, Russia opened two maritime humanitarian corridors in the Azov and Black Sea from 08:00am to 19:00 every day. The 80-nautical-mile long and three-mile wide humanitarian corridor in the Black Sea is meant for ships to leave the ports of Kherson, Nikolayev, Chernomorsk, Ochakov, Odessa, and Yuzhny in the southwestern direction off Ukraine’s territorial sea.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, Russian Navy experts have cleared the port of Mariupol of mines.
It was said that during the mine clearing operations, about 12,000 explosive items were discovered and destroyed. Sunken ships and other obstructions to passage were also removed from the port. An area of the Azov Sea beachfront near to Mariupol’s harbour was likewise demined by Russian experts.
