President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Ukraine is not yet ready for a military operation to deblockade Mariupol.
He said this at a press conference to Ukrainian and foreign media, Ukrainian News Agency reports.
"Are we ready now? No, don't trust anyone regarding the military unblocking. Today we are not ready," this is how the head of state answered the question about the possibility of unblocking Mariupol.
At the same time, he noted that it is about "our people and our cities, therefore we have the full moral right to military unblocking of our cities and we have great hope that we will be able to do this."
According to the President, the military leaders and commanders who are now defending part of Mariupol (in particular, the Azovstal metallurgical plant) are well aware that at the moment it is impossible to deblockade by military means.
The President's press conference was held at the Maidan Nezalezhnosti subway station in Kyiv.
In the forefront were Head of the Office of the President Andrii Yermak, his deputy Kyrylo Tymoshenko, Vice Prime Minister, Minister for the Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories Iryna Vereshchuk, as well as the security of the head of state.
Next were Ukrainian and foreign media journalists.
As Ukrainian News Agency reported, Zelenskyy said that Ukraine would withdraw from any negotiations with Russia if the Russians killed people in Mariupol or held a "referendum" somewhere in the temporarily occupied territory.
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