“I want to tell the mothers of Russian soldiers that I do not want their children to die here,” says the Ukrainian president after estimating casualties at almost 9,000
A week after the start of the Russian military offensive in Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky, who said Thursday that there are already almost 9,000 Russian casualties, sent a message to their families. “I want to tell the mothers of the Russian soldiers that I do not want their children to die here,” he assured at a press conference, adding that “I am afraid for the life of my family, but as president I have no right to be afraid”.
Zelenski, who is sure of his army and his people in the face of the advance of the Russian troops, affirmed that “no one who is here can know about the future or has true answers.” However, he said that he wants to negotiate directly with his Russian counterpart. “Talking with Putin is the only way to stop the war,” he asserted after declaring himself “open” and “willing to address all issues” with him.
The Ukrainian president also promised that he will “rebuild every building” destroyed by the Russian army and assured that Moscow will pay for it. “We are going to rebuild every building, every street, every city, and we say to Russia: learn the word ‘repair’. They will fully reimburse us for everything they have done against our state, against every Ukrainian,” he declared.
Before emphasizing that the Ukrainian forces have managed to preserve all “the front lines”, he stated that “we have been very strong, we have survived and we will continue to stand”. “We have survived in our history and in our homeland two world wars, three famines, the Holocaust, the Babi Yar massacre, the Great Purge, the Chernobyl explosion, the occupation of Crimea and the war in the east of our country,” he said, although while Ukraine is not large or does not have nuclear weapons, it has “its people and its land.”
On the other hand, Zelensky also stressed that Ukraine receives “daily” weapons from its partner countries, “from true friends”, and stressed that “foreign volunteers” are joining the Ukrainian ranks. Kiev put this number at 16,000 citizens.
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