Volodymyr Zelensky wishes Vladimir Putin to spend the “rest of his life” in a cellar without a toilet

“After seeing this, I wish the Russian president would spend the rest of his life in a basement with a bucket instead of a toilet.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made the statement after visiting a Ukrainian village in the Cherniguiv region on Monday (3 April). Almost the entire population was sequestered in a cellar by the Russian occupiers.

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Eleven people died in this basement of a school of less than 200 m2 where around 367 of the approximately 400 inhabitants of Yagidné, in northern Ukraine, were locked up for 27 days in March 2022. “All these people were living in complete darkness, waiting for the Ukrainians to return. They wrote [sur les murs] the names of those who died and the dates so as not to forget them. And the children marked the words of the Ukrainian anthem”said Volodymyr Zelensky during a ceremony in their homage, in the company of the German Vice-Chancellor, Robert Habeck.

After failing to conquer kyiv, the Russian army left northern Ukraine at the end of March 2022, a month after the start of the invasion. Accusations, often documented, of summary executions, torture, rape and robbery in occupied towns and villages have multiplied. The Kremlin has always denied.