By KYIV. Oct 31 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The number of Ukrainians willing to leave the Gaza Strip has increased to 357, Ukraine hopes the evacuation of people will be held in the near future, Ambassador of Ukraine to Israel Yevhen Korniychuk has said.
“However, the number of such people has been growing. Unfortunately, we lose contact with them from time to time. Currently, we are in touch. For the tenth time, we have submitted the updated lists to the Israeli and Egyptian sides separately, to our American coordinators, and we also submit the lists of Moldovans and Bulgarians who are seeking help. They have small communities. I really hope that the evacuation will be held soon,” he said on air of the national telethon on Tuesday.
At the same time, the ambassador said that, however, alarming signals are being received, first of all, from the Egyptian side, which says that Hamas is not interested in evacuating people.
“And people remain under fire. The number of Ukrainians killed in the Gaza Strip is constantly increasing. Therefore, we keep separate records of such citizens. This information has not been confirmed by anyone except our civilian activists, please understand this. Therefore, of course, there may be inaccuracies,” Korniychuk said.
He also recalled that the UN and ICRC missions do not work in the Gaza Strip, so the embassy cannot confirm information from them. The ambassador also emphasized that none of the partner countries have yet been able to evacuate their citizens, including the United States has not yet evacuated its diplomats.
“Therefore, the situation is extremely difficult. Negotiations are ongoing. About 6,000 foreign citizens (usually with dual citizenship) have applied for evacuation from the Gaza Strip. Unfortunately, virtually not a single application has been satisfied. But I can say that we are in the first place,” Korniychuk said.
According to him, Ukraine hopes to cooperate with Egypt and Qatar in this matter.
