Ukraine “will not accept any ultimatum from Russia” to “stop the war”, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday in an interview with Ukrainian regional state media.
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“Ukraine cannot accept any ultimatum from Russia. We must first destroy us all, only then will their ultimatums be respected,” he told Suspilne, a regional news site that published the video of this interview.
“We (the Russians) issue an ultimatum, here are all the points, fulfill them and then we will stop the war: this is not correct, it will not bring results”, he continued, hammering that “the people are united”.
Moscow would like, for example, that the cities of Kharkiv (north-east), Mariupol (south-east) or Kyiv, the capital, go, underlined the Ukrainian head of state.
But “neither the people of Kharkiv nor those of Mariupol, nor those of Kyiv, nor myself, the president, we can do it,” he said.
“And we see it well in the occupied cities of Melitopol, Berdiansk (…), people do not let themselves be done. They (the Russians) put up a flag, people take it down,” Zelensky said.
“What do you want ? Destroy us all. This is why I answer: we can only respect this ultimatum if we are no longer there”, he concluded.
The Ukrainian president was also due to address the Italian parliament by video link on Tuesday, as he has already done with elected officials in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany and Israel.
On Wednesday, it will be the turn of the French parliament.