President Volodymyr Zelensky held a press conference this Saturday, April 23 from the metro in the Ukrainian capital. He reiterated his call for a meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin “to end the war”.
“I insisted from the beginning on the negotiations with the Russian president”, recalled the Ukrainian president. Before adding: “It’s not that I want (to meet him), it’s that I have to meet him in order to settle this conflict through diplomatic means”.
In front of dozens of journalists, Volodymyr Zelensky also warned Vladimir Putin about the consequences of a Russian attack on the Azovstal factory. Indeed, kyiv will abandon negotiations with Moscow if its soldiers, entrenched in the vast metallurgical complex in Mariupol, in the south-east of Ukraine, are killed by the Russian army.
“If our men are killed in Mariupol and if pseudo-referendums are organized in the region of Kherson (south), then Ukraine will withdraw from any negotiation process”, affirmed Volodymyr Zelensky during this same press conference in kyiv.
