Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky warned this Saturday that the annihilation of the defenders who continue to resist in the city of Mariupol would mean the immediate end of the negotiations with Russia.
“Mariupol can be like 10 times Borodianka,” Zelensky said, referring to one of the towns outside Kyiv where Ukraine denounces Russian war crimes. “And let me tell you that the destruction of our military, of our boys, would put an end to all negotiations,” the president said. This during an interview with the Ukrainian press collected by the portal The truth of Ukraine.
Zelensky warned that “we do not trade with territories or with our people.” “The more Borodiankas there are, the more difficult it will be,” he argued.
The ukrainian president He indicated that the contacts with Russia seek to help the combatants who are in Mariupol. But Moscow asks them to surrender.
Russia began the invasion of Ukraine on February 24 and the city of Mariupol, on the shores of the Black Sea, has been under siege since March 1. It is a strategic square to connect the Crimean peninsula with the Donetsk region.