Ukraine Army deterring attacks by Russian troops in key areas - Zelensky

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said this in a video address, according to an Ukrinform correspondent.

"The Armed Forces of Ukraine are deterring attacks by Russian troops in key areas. In the Kharkiv region - in the Izium direction, in Donbas - especially near Popasna, in Mariupol where the resistance of the city's defenders continues, in the southern areas, where the occupiers are trying to go on the offensive," he said.

He noted that air raid alarms were heard this morning almost all over our country, and Russia is trying to break Ukrainian resistance.

"Russia does not stop trying to break our resistance to... Achieve what? In the occupied areas, either a humanitarian catastrophe has already occurred or there is very little time left before it occurs. There is a lack of basic products, there is a lack of medicines. People do not have the means to live normally, there is no basic security. They don’t have everything they had before February 24. What Donetsk and Luhansk had before 2014. Everything that we will definitely return after the liberation of our land," Zelensky said.

He also noted that Ukraine continues to do everything to drive out the invaders and restore peace for all Ukrainian people.

"A key element of this process is the strength of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Availability of sufficient quantity and quality of weapons, sufficient quantity and quality of ammunition," he said.

Zelensky noted that assistance to Ukraine was the number one issue in talks with representatives of the United States who arrived in Kyiv on April 24 - Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.

"Our talks with them were long enough - more than three hours - and meaningful. Encouraging and, which is important, effective," Zelensky said.