(Kyiv) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called again on Saturday to meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin “to end the war”.
Posted at 1:13 p.m.
Updated at 1:43 p.m.
“I think whoever started this war can end it,” Mr. Zelensky said at a press conference inside a metro station in downtown Kyiv, repeating that “he was not afraid to meet” (Mr. Putin) if it would lead to a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine.
“I insisted from the start on negotiations with the Russian president,” he recalled. And to add: “It is not that I want (to meet him), it is that I must meet him in order to settle this conflict by diplomatic means”.
“We trust our partners, but there is no trust with Russia,” he said, however.
The Ukrainian president also warned that Kyiv would abandon negotiations with Moscow if the Ukrainian soldiers entrenched in the vast metallurgical complex of Azovstal 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 Kherson region (south, editor’s note), then Ukraine will withdraw from any negotiation process,” he said.
He also said he was “ready” for “an exchange of our soldiers who defend Mariupol”, in “any format”, to get out “these people who are in a horrible situation, surrounded”.
He specified that “the last contact” with the soldiers entrenched in the underground passages of the huge Azovstal factory dated back “to an hour ago”.
“Today is one of the toughest days” since the Russian siege on Mariupol began in early March, he said.
Sunday Blinken Tour
The head of American diplomacy Antony Blinken will visit Kyiv on Sunday, the Ukrainian president also announced on Saturday, two months to the day after the start of the Russian invasion.
“Tomorrow US officials will come to our house: I will meet Secretary of Defense (Lloyd Austin) and Antony Blinken,” Zelensky told a press conference at a metro station in Kyiv’s central square. . This will be the first official visit by US government officials to Ukraine since February 24.