Speaking publicly to around 50 domestic and foreign media outlets on Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy held a surreal press conference on the Kiev subway, which began as the last trains rolled through. Spirited and direct as always, Zelensky was moved when he spoke about the children trapped in Mariupol, the seven rockets that fell in southern Ukraine on Saturday before a religious holiday, and on several occasions, visibly moved, called them “bastards”. , who ordered the attack that killed five people, including a three-month-old child, and injured 18 when the rockets hit a residential area of Odessa on the Black Sea coast. “They killed a three-month-old baby. The war started when this baby was a month old. They’re just bastards. I can’t think of any other words in this context. They’re just bastards.”
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Asked if he still wants to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin and if he thinks such a meeting would be useful, Zelenskyy said: “From the beginning I have insisted on the need to negotiate with the leader of the Russian Federation, because I believe that meeting through mediators will not achieve the desired effect.” “This war can only be stopped by whoever started it,” he said.
On these peace talks, Zelenskyy discredited the steps taken so far: “Our partners, both the Europeans and the United States and Canada, see what Russia is doing and what it says about Ukraine not wanting to sit at the negotiating table to end the war “. “All this caused a cumulative effect, and even sitting down with Russia will create trust in our partners, but eventually they see what Russia is doing that no one trusts,” he assured. “Russia and trust are Antonyms. They only say one thing, but their words don’t match their actions,” he added.
Dressed in military green, seated on a platform on the platforms of a central train station in the capital, Zelenskyy responded to fears about meeting the Russian president because some members of his informal negotiating group reported suffering symptoms similar to being poisoned after a few years of meeting with his counterpart. Zelenskyy called these episodes “assassination attempts” and said his security team and family were concerned, but he couldn’t be. “I’m not afraid of meeting Putin or of assassination attempts,” he said. “I have no right to be afraid because our people have shown that they are not afraid of anything. They are afraid for their children, yes, but people stopped the tanks with their bare hands.”
Zelenski, during the press conference this Saturday. GLEB GARANICH (REUTERS)
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Referring to the critical situation in Mariupol, where the evacuation of hundreds of people isolated and without food in the besieged city in south-eastern Ukraine was scheduled for Saturday, the former soap opera actor blamed Russia for the failure of the evacuation. Zelensky said if Russia kills Mariupol supporters or holds the independence referendum in the partially occupied southern Kherson and Zaporizhia regions, Ukraine will immediately halt negotiations with Moscow. “If they kill our people in Mariupol, if they announce a pseudo-referendum in the new pseudo-republics, Ukraine will not participate in any negotiation process,” he stressed. According to Zelenskyy, a referendum “is not helpful for a solution and will hinder the ending of the war through diplomatic channels”. “This is a wrong step by Russia and shows the futility of all this, such as meetings with diplomats. By the way, it was all just fiction and political theater with very bad actors,” he added in an apocalyptic setting, surrounded by heavily armed men and adorned with his country’s flags near the escalators.
The Ukrainian President confirmed that the planned evacuation of civilians in the city of Mariupol did not take place and blamed Russia for the failure. A city council official said more than 300 people, including 90 children, have been deported from the enclave to Russia.
The new war front was opened in the south of the country, specifically near Moldova. In that sense, Zelenskyy insisted that Putin’s invasion was “just a start” and that Moscow intends to conquer other countries after a commando of Russian forces said they seek total control of southern Ukraine. On the role of Russian society in the conflict, the president also blamed the people for electing their rulers: “They should accept that they are guilty, their authorities are guilty, but they elected those authorities,” he said. “You can’t say, ‘I have nothing to do with this.’ They should be able to say that they feel like citizens of Russia and that they have that responsibility.” Zelensky compared life in Russia to life in a video game. “Life in the Russian Federation is like living in virtual reality,” he said.
Zelensky announces that Blinken and Austin will visit Kyiv this Sunday
Zelenski announced that he will meet with United States Secretary of Defense and Secretary of State Lloyd Austin and Antony Blinken this Sunday. “I don’t think it’s a secret that people are coming from the United States tomorrow,” said the President, referring to the two American politicians.
US President Joe Biden announced last week that he would be involved in the trip of senior government officials to Ukraine. “We hope that the President of the United States will speak to us when security allows,” Zelenskyy added.
Blinken and Austin’s trip to Kyiv, which coincides with the celebration of Orthodox Easter, complements visits by other political leaders who were present to show their support for Ukraine. The latest to visit the country on Thursday were Spanish Government President Pedro Sánchez and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen. In front of them, among others, the Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki; Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala; the Slovenian Janez Jansa or the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Among the senior officials of the EU were the President of the European Commission, Ursula von de Leyen; the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola; European Council President Charles Michel and High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell.
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