Russian President Vladimir Putin said today that Kyiv refuses to allow the last Ukrainian soldiers left in the Azovstal industrial zone in besieged Mariupol to surrender.
“The lives of all Ukrainian soldiers, nationalist fighters and foreign mercenaries are guaranteed if they lay down their arms (…), but the Kyiv regime does not allow such a possibility,” Putin said, according to the Kremlin’s communiqué, during a telephone conversation between the President of Russia and the chairman of the Council of Europe Charles Michel.
In today’s conversation with Charles Michel, the Russian president called “irresponsible statements by EU representatives that the situation in Ukraine should be resolved militarily, as well as ignoring numerous Ukrainian war crimes.” Putin also accused “the leaders of most EU countries of turning a blind eye to openly Russophobic actions” amid the exclusion of Russians from cultural and sporting events.
The President also explained to Michel that the purpose of the “special operation” was to protect ethnic Russians in the Donbass.
Putin said he would meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky only if negotiations between the two countries yield concrete results. According to the head of the Russian state, Kyiv demonstrates its unwillingness to seek mutually acceptable solutions and accuses the Ukrainian side of inconsistency in the negotiations, Reuters reports citing the Kremlin.