Russian army is world’s most barbaric, says Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy

Ukrainian president said the war would be over already if arms he needed had been supplied at the start

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks from Kyiv on April 18. Ukrainian Presidential Press Office / AP

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday called for the international community to increase the supply of military aid to his country to help fight the Russian invasion.

Mr Zelenskyy said that if Ukraine possessed arms “comparable to the weapons used by the Russian Federation”, the war would be long over because “the superiority of the Ukrainian military in tactics and wisdom is quite obvious".

He said the Russian military was throwing everything it had at Ukraine, with most of its combat-ready troops concentrated in the country and just across the border in Russia.

“They have driven almost everyone and everything that is capable of fighting us against Ukraine,” Mr Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address to the nation.

And despite Russian claims of hitting only military sites, he said they continued to aim at residential areas and kill civilians.

“The Russian army is blocking any efforts to organise humanitarian corridors and save our people,” Mr Zelenskyy said.

“The occupants are looking to deport or even mobilise the local residents who have fallen into their hands.

“The fate of at least tens of thousands of Mariupol residents who were previously relocated to Russian-controlled territory is unknown.”

“The Russian army in this war is writing itself into world history forever as the most barbaric and inhuman army in the world."

He said the Kremlin has not responded to a proposal to exchange Viktor Medvedchuk, the jailed leader of a pro-Russia party, for the Mariupol defenders.

A sign that reads 'Children' is fixed on to a car windscreen riddled with bulletholes in Irpin, Ukraine. AFP

A woman weeps next to her husband's coffin at a cemetery in Irpin. AFP

Residents walk amid debris of a charred Russian tank next to destroyed houses in the village of Zalissya. AFP

Volunteers distribute food to residents in Zalissya. AFP

A man walks past a damaged apartment building in the southern port city of Mariupol. Reuters

Tamara, 71, cries in front of a destroyed apartment building in Mariupol. Reuters

Local residents push a cart with a child past destroyed buildings in Mariupol. Reuters

A record player sits among debris inside an apartment in Mariupol. Reuters

Residents carry belongings past a destroyed building in Mariupol. Reuters

Security guards help an injured man following a Russian bombing of a factory in Kramatorsk. AP

A man receives first aid treatment. AP

Soldiers collect explosives after recent battles in the village of Moshchun, close to Kyiv. AP

The Komodor logistics park lies in ruins after being bombed and burnt during the Russian invasion near Makarov. Getty Images

A room in a kindergarten stands windowless in Makarov. Getty Images

A vehicle draped with a Ukrainian flag passes over a war-damaged bridge in Makarov. Getty Images

A man sits in a basement that was used as a bomb shelter in the village of Kukhari. EPA

Local residents clean the area around a destroyed farm in Kukhari. EPA

Nadia looks at her husband's coffin at a cemetery in Bucha. He was killed during the war. AFP

Mangled buildings in Irpin point to the ravages of the ongoing war. Getty Images

A burnt apartment tower in Irpin. Getty Images

Family members grieve during the funeral of Ruslan Nechyporenko, 47, in Bucha. Getty Images

An abandoned Russian military position in Borodyanka town near Kyiv. EPA

Heavily pregnant Dr Marta Kopan, who fled Kyiv with her husband Dr Maxim Motsya and their three-year-old son Makar, narrates their ordeal at a relative's place in Lviv. AP

A Ukrainian officer searches for unexploded explosives as he passes by an Antonov An-225, the world's biggest cargo aircraft, destroyed during the war on the outskirts of Kyiv. AP

A woman stands amid the destruction caused when a civilian building was hit by a Russian missile in Lviv, western Ukraine. Getty Images

Ukrainian soldiers on an armoured personnel carrier, near the front line with Russian troops, in Izyum district, Kharkiv region, north-eastern Ukraine. AFP

Ukrainian refugees arrive at the Siret border crossing between Romania and Ukraine. AFP

Ukranian soldiers in a trench look out across the front line near Kharkiv. AFP

Cars destroyed in Russian attacks, in Irpin, near Kyiv. The scene of fierce fighting, the town was occupied by Russian forces. Reuters

Damaged and destroyed vehicles at Illich Iron and Steel Works Metallurgical Plant, in an area controlled by Russian-backed separatists in besieged south-eastern city Mariupol. AP

Russian military vehicles in an area controlled by Moscow-backed separatists near Mariupol. AP

An elderly woman waits do be evacuated from a hospice in Chasiv Yar city, in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine. At least 35 residents have been helped to flee from the region that has been under attack for weeks. AP

A Ukrainian Interior Ministry serviceman collects unexploded shells, grenades and mines, following fierce fighting in Hostomel. AP