Putin accuses neo-Nazis of preventing work of humanitarian corridors in Ukraine

MOSCOW. March 5 (Interfax) - Neo-Nazis are preventing the work of humanitarian corridors in Ukraine, in particular, in Mariupol, and are holding foreigners as hostages, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.

"They have taken foreign citizens hostage in Sumy and Kharkiv. They took them to a railway station and they have been holding them for three days now," he said at a meeting with women from the cabin crews of Russian airlines.

Russia has communicated this information to the Ukrainian administration and the leadership of the leading Western countries and the UN secretary-general, Putin said.

"No one is doing anything. And they treat people whom they consider their citizens even worse. Just really, they directly use them as live shields," Putin said.

The exactly same situation is now occurring in Mariupol, he said.

"They called from the government, from Kyiv, they contacted our military: give a corridor for citizens to come out. Of course, our people immediately reacted, they even immediately suspended military action, and they were looking at what was happening. They are not letting anyone out; they are using people as live shields. Who is that? Of course, the neo-Nazis," Putin said.

"It is exactly with actions like these that they destroy their country and their statehood," he said.