Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that the country will never accept surrender ultimatums in cities like Mariupol, Kharkov, Kiev.
In an interview with the media on March 21, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated that Kiev will never bow to Russia's ultimatum.
"We received ultimatums with demands: Do this and we will end the conflict. Ukraine cannot meet Russia's ultimatums," Zelensky said. The Ukrainian leader stressed that he himself as president and the people of Kharkov, Mariupol, Kiev or any city under siege will never accept that.
Zelensky added that any agreement with the Russian side to end the conflict would need to go through a referendum. "The people will have their say, give their views on this compromise or that compromise," he said.
According to Zelensky, an acceptable compromise is that Ukraine agrees to give up its plan to join NATO, in return, Kiev will receive security commitments from NATO members. On the contrary, he claims to never compromise on territorial integrity.
The above statements were made in the context of the Russia-Ukraine conflict continuing to escalate tensions. Ukrainian authorities yesterday also rejected Russia's ultimatum to lay down arms, citing the opening of two humanitarian corridors in the port city of Mariupol.
Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said there would be no surrender or disarming in Mariupol even if the situation there was "very tense". Ukraine's Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said that the resilience of the self-defense forces in Mariupol had saved tens of thousands of lives in other cities such as Kiev, Dnipro or Odessa.
Ukrainian officials have repeatedly said they are ready to negotiate to de-escalate tensions, but will not accept an ultimatum. However, so far, negotiations between Russia and Ukraine have not made much progress. The two sides still disagree on a number of issues such as recognizing the Russian peninsula of Crimea, recognizing the independence of two eastern breakaway regions as well as Ukraine's neutral status.
Russia stressed that its military campaign will only end when it achieves its stated goals of "de-militarization", "de-fascistization" of Ukraine as well as certain security commitments.
Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine from February 24. Russian military forces are expanding their attacks on strategic cities across Ukraine. However, according to the assessment of the British Ministry of Defense intelligence, Kiev remains a "top priority target" of Russia in the next few days and weeks. According to this agency, the momentum of Russia's advance into Kiev has almost stopped, now their forces are about 25 km from the city center.
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