Donetsk, (ST) – The President of the Donetsk People’s Republic Denis Pushlin announced that all crews of foreign ships in the port of Mariupol were sent to their countries.
“Foreign crews were sent to their countries, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Donetsk Republic provided support for this, and there are no problems. As for the ships, they are there for various reasons,” RIA Novosti news agency quoted Pushlin as saying in a press statement on Thursday.
Pushlin pointed out that the issue of determining the ownership and fate of the remaining foreign ships in the port will also be resolved by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He said that some ships will be sent by their owners to their countries and are now being examined, but they cannot leave the place to any other destination because the water area around the port was mined.
The Russian Defense Ministry had announced earlier that 5 foreign ships had left the port of Mariupol, after they were stuck there due to mines deployed by the Ukrainian forces.
On the other hand, Pushlin announced that his country’s forces had entered the Kherson, Zaporozhye and Kharkov regions in Ukraine, He stressed the impossibility of protecting the Donbass region without reaching the borders of the two republics.
“Our units are present in a number of regions, and here I am talking about the Kherson-Zaporozhye and Kharkov regions. It is not about liberating Kharkov, but about protecting the entirety of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics,” Pushlin said.
Raghda Sawas