Zelenskyy says Ukrainian troops turned down offer to flee Mariupol

Soldiers opt to stay with the dead and wounded as president blames Russia for 'humanitarian catastrophe' in besieged port city

Local resident Valentina Demura, 70, reacts next to the building where her apartment, destroyed during Ukraine-Russia conflict, is located in the besieged southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine March 27, 2022. Valentina worked for many years at the Azovstal Iron and Steel Works. After her apartment was destroyed, she lives with neighbors in their apartment, and they take shelter together in the basement. REUTERS / Alexander Ermochenko TPX IMAGES OF THE DAYShow less

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Ukrainian troops defending the besieged city of Mariupol are free to leave and save themselves but insist on staying with their wounded brothers-in-arms, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said.

Mariupol has become synonymous with the humanitarian crisis unfolding during the war, with Ukraine accusing Russia of shelling aid convoys, cutting off supplies of food and medicine and laying waste to the strategic port city.

Bodies of soldiers and civilians are lying in the open air and efforts to remove them have largely failed, Mr Zelenskyy said in an interview with Russian media outlets in which he said he spoke regularly to troops defending Mariupol.

He said he had told them that “if you feel that you need to leave and you feel that it is right and that you can survive, do it”.

“I gave them that choice,” he said. “And they said: 'we can't, the wounded are here, we will not leave the wounded'. Moreover, they said they would not leave the dead.”

The interview angered Russia's media regulator Roskomnadzor, which told the domestic press not to publish Mr Zelenskyy's remarks and described the interviewers as foreign agents.

The Ukrainian president blames Russia for what he called a "humanitarian catastrophe" in Mariupol and said 2,000 children had been relocated by Russian forces to an uncertain fate via what Moscow says are evacuation corridors.

The city's mayor, Vadym Boychenko, told local media on Monday that about 160,000 people remained in the city out of a pre-war population of more than 400,000.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wearing his trademark green T-shirt during an interview with independent Russian media. AP

Peace talks

Speaking to the Russian journalists and separately to The Economist, Mr Zelenskyy said he was willing to broker peace directly with Russian President Vladimir Putin, including by negotiating a form of neutrality for Ukraine.

Any such agreement would be put to a referendum in Ukraine but could only take place if Russia withdrew all its troops from the country, said Mr Zelenskyy, who has in recent weeks played down the prospect of joining Nato and demanded what he calls security guarantees from the West.

He described the status of the Russian language in Ukraine as another area where progress could be made in negotiations but said the Kremlin's demands for demilitarisation and what it calls "denazification" were off the table.

In addition, Ukraine will reject any "compromises that may risk the disintegration of the country, the ones which Putin proposes, or rather demands in the form of an ultimatum", he said, amid contested claims to Crimea and the eastern Donbas region.

The two sides were expected to resume peace talks in Istanbul this week after three weeks without an in-person meeting, during which Russia's invasion has appeared to stall.

Mr Zelenskyy said Russian forces had been going around in circles and in some cases abandoning their tanks but renewed his appeal for more weapons from the West to fend off the invasion.

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  A woman walks past a poster depicting Russian President Vladimir Putin holding his own body, as Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues, in Sofia, Bulgaria. Reuters

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  A man walks past a residential area destroyed by a rocket strike in Kyiv. Getty Images

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  Ukraine refugees wait in the train station in Przemysl, near the Polish-Ukrainian border. More than 3.8 million have fled Ukraine since Russia's invasion. AFP

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  Ukrainian civilians receive weapons training at a shooting range in Brno, Czech Republic. EPA

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  A Ukrainian special police officer patrols near a destroyed building during the night curfew in Kharkiv. AP Photo

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  A Ukrainian serviceman walks past the wreck of a Russian tank in Lukyanivka, Kyiv. Reuters

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  Ukrainian Air Force jets take part in a defence drill over an unidentified location. Reuters

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  Valentina Demura, 70, near the ruins of her home in apartment block in the besieged southern port city of Mariupol. Reuters

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  A message of support for Ukraine at the 94th Academy Awards in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. Reuters

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  The widow of sergeant Kostiantyn Deriuhin stands at her husband's grave after his funeral at Lychakiv cemetery in Lviv, Ukraine. Reuters

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  A walk amid the ruins after a Russian attack in Byshiv on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine. AP

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  A soldier of the Ukrainian territorial defence forces gives a salute during a break in digging a foxhole at Kalynivka, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine. AP

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  A bust adorned with a headband in the colours of the Ukraine flag at a checkpoint in Kyiv, Ukraine. AP

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  The Cheremosh Folk Song and Dance Ensemble performs in the streets of the Old Town in Lviv, Ukraine. Getty

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  Eugene Grigorash says goodbye to his wife Victoria Grigorash and their seven-month-old son Roman as their bus leaves Lviv on its way to Poland. Getty

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  People head for an air raid shelter after sirens sound across Lviv in Ukraine. Getty

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  A pro-Ukraine rally at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. EPA

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  The aftermath of an air strike on the western Ukrainian city of Lviv. AFP

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  A protester weeps as she takes part in a 'mothers' march' for Ukraine, in New York. AFP

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  Local people share a basement of a historical building which is being used as a bomb shelter during an air raid warning in Lviv. EPA

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  US President Joe Biden kisses a child while meeting refugees of Russia's war with Ukraine at PGE Narodowy Stadium in Warsaw, Poland. AFP

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  A Ukrainian soldier stands guard at Independence Square in Kyiv. AFP

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  Municipal employees cover the city's monuments with sand bags to protect them from strikes in Kharkiv. AFP

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  Misha, 5, who lost his mother some weeks ago and got injured during a Russian strike, is helped by his grandfather to dress up in the basement of a hospital in Mykolaiv. AFP

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  Ukrainian refugees rest in the ticket hall of Przemysl Glowny train station. Reuters

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  A woman walks past destroyed houses in the village of Krasylivka outside Kyiv. Reuters

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  A man climbs up a ladder to examine his destroyed house in the village of Krasylivka outside Kyiv. Reuters

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  Damage inside an Orthodox Church building in Yasnohorodka, on the outskirts of Kyiv. AP

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  A Ukrainian soldier at a psychiatric hospital damaged by a Russian bombing, in Mykolaiv. AP

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  Displaced people from Dnipro arrive in Lviv, in western Ukraine. Millions are internally displaced. Getty Images

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  A destroyed school in Kharkiv. AFP

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  A Ukrainian fighter on the front line in the north Kyiv region. Reuters

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  A resident walks past blazing buildings and vehicles after a Russian artillery strike in Kharkiv. AFP

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  Black smoke billows from a fuel depot near Kyiv that was used by the Ukrainian Army before it was hit by during a Russian strike. AP

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  Masha, 26, checks her mobile phone at an air raid shelter inside a Kyiv metro station. Reuters

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  A market on fire in Kharkiv after a Russian attack. AP

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  People try to recover items from a shop set on fire during a Russian attack in Kharkiv. AP

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  Nastya Kuzyk, 20, who was injured in an attack on Chernihiv, is comforted by her mother Svitlana, 50, as she recovers in a Kyiv hospital. AP

In the latest of his frank assessments of the performance of foreign leaders, which have stirred something of a bidding war for a coveted thumbs-up from Kyiv, Mr Zelenskyy offered guarded praise to UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson while giving a more critical verdict on the French and German leadership.

Mr Johnson "is a leader who is helping more" and Britain is "definitely on our side", said Mr Zelenskyy, although he could not say whether Britain wanted a swift Ukrainian victory or would accept a long war to weaken Russia.

By contrast, he said Germany was "making a mistake" with what he described as a more cautious policy and said remarks by French President Emmanuel Macron that leaders could not send tanks to Ukraine suggested they were "afraid of Russia".

The president said a Ukrainian victory in the war would mean saving as many lives as possible because its claims to land are important but "ultimately, it's just territory".

"We believe in victory. It’s impossible to believe in anything else," he said. "We will definitely win because this is our home, our land, our independence. It’s just a question of time."