Zelensky: Russia does not agree to any option for saving Mariupol defenders

“Its defenders still remain in Mariupol. They continue their resistance on the territory of the Azovstal plant. We use all possible diplomatic tools to organize rescue for them. But Russia has not yet agreed to any of the many options offered,” President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said in his address to the Parliament of Malta.

He noted that Ukraine had asked its partners for the necessary weapons to unblock Mariupol and save military and civilians. However, Ukraine still does not have the necessary weapons and the amount needed to unblock Mariupol.

“What does it mean? You can fully understand this by simply remembering the importance of the British Spitfires in the spring Maltese sky of 1942,” the President stressed.

As noted, Britain and the United States accomplished the mission involving the Spitfires which changed the course of the battle for Malta and helped destroy the ambition of the then aggressor to capture the island.

“And now we need a similar mission from our partners. To destroy the ambition of the current aggressor to capture Ukraine and other European countries. We need aircraft, helicopters, special artillery and other weapons, because now, as 80 years ago, Europe's future is decided on the battlefield,” Zelensky said.

According to him, there is no doubt that Russia is aware of what is happening in Mariupol because the Russian army was ordered to destroy this city and kill as many people as possible. Russian planes are constantly dropping air bombs and phosphorus munitions on buildings in which they know for sure that people are sheltering there and there are no military. "It's just terror," the Head of State said.

As noted, since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the Russian army has been trying to block Ukrainian cities, and the occupiers organized a real hell in the city of Mariupol.

“They blocked it from both land and sea. Constantly bombed. More than 90 percent of all buildings were destroyed there. Before the war, by the way, it was a city of half a million. It was artificially starved. The Russian army has blocked the delivery of any food, drinking water or medicine,” the President stressed.

Mariupol experiences one of the biggest humanitarian catastrophes due to Russian aggression. The city has been blocked by invaders for more than two months. Russians have bombed residential neighborhoods and civilian infrastructure, block the delivery of humanitarian aid.

As reported, over the past day, the Russian invaders made 34 air raids on the Azovstal steelworks, including eight sorties of strategic bombers.

On May 7, civilians – women, children, and the elderly – were evacuated from the bunkers of the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol.

However, on May 9, Head of the Donetsk Regional Military Administration Pavlo Kyrylenko said that more than 100 civilians had remained in the bunkers.

The Ukrainian military, with several hundred wounded among them, hold the defense of the steelworks’ territory, which Russian troops are constantly firing on by all kinds of weapons and trying to storm.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the Ukrainian authorities were working on diplomatic options to save the Ukrainian military stationed in the Azovstal territory.

Soldiers of the Azov Regiment, the National Guard, marines, and motorized riflemen continue to defend Mariupol.

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