kyiv will abandon negotiations with Moscow if its soldiers, entrenched in the vast Azovstal metallurgical complex in Mariupol, in the south-east of Ukraine, are killed by the Russian army, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday.
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"
If our men are killed in Mariupol and if pseudo-referendums are organized in the Kherson region (south, editor's note), then Ukraine will withdraw from any negotiation process
", affirmed Volodymyr Zelensky during a conference of press in Kyiv.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called again on Saturday to meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin "
to end the war
".
Read alsoUkraine: how the soldiers entrenched in the Mariupol Azovstal factory resist the Russians
“
I think whoever started this war will be able to end
it,” Volodymyr Zelensky told a press conference inside a metro station in downtown Kiev, repeating that “
there is no 'wasn't afraid to meet (Vladimir Putin)
' if it would lead to a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine.