The President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky stated that he offered the defenders of Mariupol leave the city due to the extremely difficult situation. He explained that he had talked to the military in the city and given them a choice.
He told this in an interview with Russian journalists ("Meduza", "Dozhd", "Kommersant").
"I understand what it looks like for the military. They said that… But I gave them a choice. They said, "We canʼt [leave the city]. There are injured people here. We will not leave the wounded". Moreover, they said: We will not abandon the dead. To make you understand: corpses lie on the roads and sidewalks in the city. Corpses of Russian soldiers and citizens of Ukraine are just lying around — no one is removing them", the president said.
He said the city was under the control of the Ukrainian military, but both they and civilians were encircled by Russians. Russia does not provide humanitarian corridors and takes people to the occupied territories. According to the president, they are kept as "souls for the exchange fund".