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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the way to end the war with Russia was necessary Diplomacy and an international agreement with security guarantees from other countries after every military victory.
“The victory will be bloody,” he said in a Ukrainian TV interview that aired on Saturday, and “the end will certainly be in diplomacy.”
But he and other leaders stressed that Russia should not retain control of territories it captured during hostilities. Although Russian forces failed to capture the capital, Kyiv, and the northeastern city of Kharkiv, they did capture the cities of Kherson and Mariupol in southern and southeastern Ukraine.
Bloody fighting continues in eastern Ukraine, which the United States says is part of Moscow’s strategy to annex much of the country and install pro-Russian leaders, a move mirroring Ukraine’s 2014 annexation of Crimea.
“We want to give everything back, and Russia doesn’t want to give anything back,” Zelenskyy said in an interview. “And so it will be in the end.”
His comments come as the Russian invasion falters and military leaders revise their strategy, firing commanders and increasingly relying on artillery and long-range weapons after losing thousands of troops.
The prospect of a Russian victory is dwindling
Although analysts and pundits see Russian President Vladimir Putin’s long-term goals as unsustainable, the invasion continues to take a toll on Ukraine, particularly in the eastern Donbass and Luhansk regions, where Russian troops are concentrated.
Zelenskyy said on Sunday that up to 100 soldiers were being killed every day in the hard-hit east.
The southern port city of Severodonetsk — one of the last major cities in eastern Luhansk province still under Kyiv’s control — has become the latest focus of hostilities.
Regional authorities urged the thousands remaining in the city of once 100,000 to flee as heavy shelling continues and Russian forces destroyed a bridge used for evacuations and aid deliveries on Saturday.
Serhiy Haidai, governor of the Luhansk region, said: “If they destroy one more bridge, unfortunately the city will be completely cut off.”
Lyudmila Denisova, Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman, warned in a post on messaging app Telegram that Severodonetsk is becoming “a new Mariupol” – another southern port city now in ruins and its civilians deprived of basic needs after months of bombing are cut off.
Russia claims Mariupol is completely under its control after Ukraine last week ended defenses at a steel mill where civilians and militants had been holed up for weeks.
The mayor of Mariupol, where the plant is located, has warned the city is “on the brink of an infectious disease outbreak” because of the war.
Many residents of the city don’t have access to water or functioning sewage systems, Vadym Boychenko said in a message published on Telegram on Saturday, while summer rains are likely to spread diseases from hastily dug shallow graves into the water supply.
Zelenskyy expressed hope about the fate of hundreds of Ukrainian armed forces at the plant and raised the prospect of future talks with Russia.
“I said during the bombing that if they annihilate the people of Azovstal, there will never be talks with Russia. Today we saw that they found a way to keep these people alive,” said Zelenskyy the interview that aired on Saturday.
“Time changes things,” he added. “There are different situations. It all depends on the time.”
In a surprise visit, Polish President Andrzej Duda addressed Ukraine’s parliament in Kyiv on Sunday, the first personal appearance by a foreign leader since the war began. He reiterated Poland’s support for Ukraine and called on Russia to withdraw.
“Only Ukraine has the right to decide its future,” Duda said, according to a translation. “The international community must demand that Russia end its aggression and leave Ukraine completely.”
Zelenskyi vowed to give Polish citizens more rights after a new law in Poland granted rights to millions of Ukrainian citizens who have sought refuge in Poland since Russia invaded Poland on February 24.
“This is an unprecedented decision, according to which our citizens who had to flee to Poland due to Russian aggression will be granted almost the same rights and opportunities as Polish citizens. Legal residency, employment, education, healthcare and social benefits,” Zelenskyy said, according to the text of the speech.
Meanwhile, the United States is stepping up its support for Ukraine after President Biden on Saturday signed a $40 billion package to bring new military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
Cut US military aid to Ukraine
Zelensky said more military aid to Ukraine will help the country reopen its ports and ease pressure on global food prices after battling halted exports of grain and other agricultural products.
Military and State Department officials are considering sending special forces to guard a newly opened embassy in Kyiv, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.
A US official confirmed the talks but stressed the idea was only preliminary.
“We are in close contact with our colleagues at the State Department about possible security requirements after they resumed operations at the embassy in Kyiv, but no decisions have been made at higher levels of the ministry – and no concrete proposals have been discussed about the return of US military personnel to Ukraine for this or any other purpose,” said Pentagon spokesman John Kirby.
A delegation of US diplomats will be in The Hague Sunday through Wednesday to speak with allies “about our responses to atrocities in Ukraine” and in other conflicts, as well as efforts to “bring perpetrators of atrocities to justice.” , the State Department said in a press release.
Ukrainian authorities have tried three captured Russian soldiers for war crimes, and the Biden government supports moves by Ukraine’s attorney general to investigate Russia’s hostilities.
Ukraine’s First Lady Olena Zelenska, in a rare joint appearance with her husband during a pre-taped television interview, has detailed the impact of the invasion on her family. She said she had hardly seen her husband since the start of the war and joked that the interview was tantamount to a “date” on television.
“Our family was torn apart like any other Ukrainian family,” Zelenska said, later pushing back an interviewer who suggested her husband had been taken away from her.
“No one takes my husband away from me, not even the war,” Zelenska replied.
Christine Armario, John Hudson, Annabelle Chapman, Victoria Bisset, and Bryan Pietsch contributed to this report.