The President of Ukraine, Volodimir Zelensky, warned this Saturday (04.16.2022) that “the elimination” of Ukrainian soldiers in Mariupol, a city besieged by Russia, “would put an end to any peace negotiations” with Moscow.
In terms of deaths, “Mariupol can be ten times Borodianka”, a small Ukrainian city near kyiv attacked and destroyed by Russian soldiers, Zelensky said in an interview with the Ukrainska Pravda website.
“The more (cases like) Borodianka are presented, the more difficult it will be” to negotiate, he stressed.
On April 11, the Ukrainian army announced that it was preparing for “a final battle” at Mariupol, on the shore of the Sea of Azov in the southeast. The next day, the Ukrainian authorities said that the fighting left between 20,000 and 22,000 dead in the strategic city, where 441,000 people lived in peacetime.
Negotiations have been deadlocked for several days. They are “extremely difficult,” Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podoliak said on Tuesday. For his part, Putin accused the Ukrainian negotiators of “lack of coherence.”
afp / ukrainska pravda / rr