Lubinets: Authorities hold negotiations on humanitarian evacuation from occupied parts of Kherson region

Ukrainian authorities on Friday held negotiations regarding a humanitarian evacuation from several settlements in the temporarily occupied areas of the Kherson region currently controlled by Russian forces.

According to Ukrinform, Ukraine's Parliamentary Commissioner for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets, announced this during a television broadcast.

"Today we separately held talks regarding the urgent humanitarian evacuation from the settlements of Oleshky, Stara Zburivka, Nova Zburivka, Hola Prystan and others. There is simply a humanitarian catastrophe there — Ukrainian civilians are without food, effectively without drinking water, and without medicine," he said.

Lubinets stated that people in those territories are hiding in basements because active combat operations are ongoing.

"And it is specifically the Russian side that is simply not allowing our civilians to leave. Today we spent quite a long time discussing various options; there were military representatives from both sides, let's put it that way. A ceasefire regime was discussed so that this humanitarian evacuation could take place," the ombudsman noted.

He said that, according to Ukrainian data, the issue concerns approximately 6,000 Ukrainian civilians, including people with limited mobility and elderly residents.

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"Also, according to our information, there are around 200 Ukrainian children there. So this was a separate part of today's discussions," Lubinets said.

The commissioner added that he had repeatedly appealed to the International Committee of the Red Cross to urgently intervene and conduct the humanitarian evacuation.

"This is their direct mandate. They are obligated to do this. But traditionally, I received a letter from the ICRC saying: 'Yes, we are ready, but ensure a ceasefire and negotiate this directly with the Russians yourselves,'" he said.

Lubinets added that today "we reached maximum agreement on all working issues."

"That is, there are no problems whatsoever on our side. Without disclosing details, today was an extremely productive round of work. First and foremost, I thank the Ukrainian team and Ukrainian negotiators, because we always arrive maximally prepared," the ombudsman said.

As Ukrinform previously reported, mandatory evacuation of children together with their parents was announced in two settlements of the Kherson region — Naddniprianske and Molodizhne.