United States welcomes reports that “some civilians have been able to evacuate Mariupol” and encourages “continued efforts” to allow civilians to depart the southern port city and other cities under siege, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said Monday.
“We want to make sure that the limited humanitarian access we’ve seen in recent hours is not fleeting. Doing so would demonstrate that there may be a genuine humanitarian intent behind this evacuation and not just another craven attempt on the part of the Kremlin to change the narrative, to achieve a PR victory,” Price said during a State Department briefing.
Price noted the US is in communication with the international organizations involved in evacuation efforts “because we know that humanitarian corridors are absolutely critical to evacuating citizens and providing urgently needed humanitarian aid.”
