Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told reporters Saturday that Russia would have to carpet-bomb Kyiv and kill all its residents to be able to conquer the capital city.
“They will come here only if they kill us all,” Zelenskyy said. “If that is their goal, let them come.”
In the meantime Zelenskyy said that Ukraine lost 1,300 troops and claimed that Russia has lost 12,000 troops, to reporters Saturday.
“I can’t say that I’m happy about their losses because it’s not who I am. We’re talking about human lives here, and those soldiers were brought to the war as cannon fodder, brainwashed and confused,” Zelenskyy said.
Zelenskyy also commented on the humanitarian corridors for the evacuation of civilians, saying the most successful corridor has been out of Sumy where tens of thousands were evacuated.
“It’s a very difficult process and sometimes we have to invent unorthodox methods to facilitate that, because the Russians almost never observe cease-fire to allow evacuation of civilians,” Zelenskyy said.
Zelenskyy also commented on discussions with Russia, saying he has been requesting direct talks at the highest level for over two years.
“At least we can see some progress now in that they also start to agree that dialogue is needed. But of course we would seek broader involvement of other world leaders, because in any talks about future firm security guarantees for Ukraine we will never trust only Moscow after such a bloody war it unleashed,” Zelenskyy said.
In a new development the White House said Saturday that the US President, Joe Biden authorized $200 million in new military assistance to Ukraine, to come from existing U.S. weapons stocks.
Biden authorized “the drawdown of up to an aggregate value of $200 million in defense articles and services of the Department of Defense, and military education and training, to provide assistance to Ukraine and to make the determinations required under such section to direct such a drawdown,” the White House said in a press release. /Argumentum.al
