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Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock in Tallinn
Photo: Janis Laizans / REUTERS
Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) has asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to allow the evacuation of the embattled Ukrainian port of Mariupol.
"It's in Putin's hands to stop this bombing there accordingly," said the Green politician on Thursday after meeting her Estonian counterpart Eva-Maria Liimets in the capital, Tallinn.
»The situation is not only highly dramatic, it is almost unbearable.«
The Russian Defense Ministry had previously announced that the Russian military had taken control of Mariupol.
The Russian government announced that the remaining Ukrainian combat units were entrenched in the industrial area of the Azovstal factory.
The factory, in which there are also said to be many civilians, should also be taken in three to four days.
Later it was said that Russia did not want to storm the last bastion of the Ukrainian army in the port city of Mariupol and was instead going for a siege.
Baerbock said the federal government is working flat out with international partners and the International Committee of the Red Cross to make it clear: »People must be able to leave the city.
The Russian bombing of the routes and roads must be stopped so that innocent people can be brought to safety.« The situation shows »the brutality with which the Russian government is waging this war, namely a war against innocent people rather than a war against the civilian population« .
Mariupol should be bled dry and starved.
Both the Foreign Office and the Chancellery have repeatedly made it clear to the Russian leadership through a wide variety of channels that there must be humanitarian corridors.
There were some escape opportunities, others were shot at.
"You can see that you can't rely on promises," said Baerbock.
mfh/mel/dpa
