Zelenskyy: Russian Takeover of Mariupol Could End Peace Talks [VIDEO]
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned that if the besieged city of Mariupol falls to Putin’s troops, that will be the end of the fragile peace talks that have been taking place between the warring nations.
Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal echoed Zelenskyy’s sentiments during an appeal on a Sunday news broadcast, asking Americans for help for the approximately 100,000 Ukrainians who remain trapped in the eastern city without food, water, heat, and electricity.
Mariupol appeared on the brink of falling to Russian forces Sunday after seven weeks under siege. The Russian military gave a deadline for surrender to a few thousand Ukrainian fighters who were providing the last pocket of resistance in Mariupol, but the Ukrainians didn’t submit. During his segment on ABC’s “This Week,” Shmyhal said that Ukrainian forces are still fighting, including in the Donbas region, “but we do not have the intention to surrender.”
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal tells @GStephanopoulos that the country will continue to try to stop the war diplomatically.
“But if Russians wouldn’t like to have negotiations, we will fight to the end, absolutely.” https://t.co/MKGNUVE8Y7 pic.twitter.com/YtFOs7pNcg
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) April 17, 2022
The prime minister says Ukraine is prepared to end the war through diplomacy, if possible. Shmyhal says surrender isn’t an option, adding that “we will not leave our country, our families, our lands, so we will fight absolutely to the end, to the win, in this war.”
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal tells @GStephanopoulos that the city of Mariupol has not yet fallen to Russian forces because Ukrainian soldiers “will fight till the end.”
“But there is a huge humanitarian catastrophe.” https://t.co/TlS6WPsBWK pic.twitter.com/YSSXQI74vi
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) April 17, 2022
Watch Shmyhal’s full segment, below.