Written by Andrew E. Kramer
Unshaven and sporting a army T-shirt, a haggard President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine on Thursday hosted his first information convention because the struggle started, inviting journalists into his workplace constructing, now fortified with sandbags.
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In an animated briefing, Zelenskyy, whose defiance has made him an emblem of Ukrainian resistance to the Russian invasion, laid out the state of negotiations with Russia, voiced pleasure in his folks, pleaded for a no-fly zone and spoke frankly about concern of dying.
Beyond the solutions Zelenskyy offered to questions, pulling a chair near attending journalists, the information convention appeared meant to sign that his battered authorities is no less than nonetheless functioning every week into the struggle, regardless of more and more dire situations in Kyiv.
Zelenskyy mentioned he was notably happy with bizarre Ukrainians’ resistance to the Russian assault, a seething, offended rebellion by a lot of society at the same time as Russian tanks bore down on main cities and the capital.
“That is why I am so strong and so decisive,” he mentioned. “We have a special people, an extraordinary people.” He mentioned that no senior officers had fled the nation, and several other prime aides turned up on the information convention.
Zelenskyy mentioned he had appealed to Western leaders for added army help, together with asking President Emmanuel Macron of France and Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany to impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine, an unlikely proposition, whereas additionally pursuing negotiations with the Russian management. The second of two rounds of talks with Russia in latest days passed off Thursday.
“We are ready to speak on all topics,” he mentioned. Zelenskyy’s negotiator on the talks, Mykhailo Podolyak, mentioned later Thursday negotiations wrapped up with an settlement on cease-fire corridors for civilians to flee heavy fight, however no progress on a settlement.
Ukrainian safety forces guard Independence Square in central Kyiv, Ukraine, March 2, 2022. (Lynsey Addario/The New York Times)
“The Russian side has long ago formed the answers to their questions,” Zelenskyy mentioned. “What is the point of posing questions if you long ago have the answers? For now, this is the difficulty of this dialogue.”
He mentioned he was able to compromise on some factors, however he didn’t specify which and mentioned he wouldn’t bend on situations threatening Ukrainian sovereignty.
“There are issues where it’s needed to find a compromise, so people don’t die, and there are issues where there can be no compromise,” he mentioned. “Well, we cannot just say, ‘here it is, it’s your country now, Ukraine is part of Russia.’ This is just impossible. So why suggest it?”
Reporters arrived on the presidential workplace in minivans that wove by concrete obstacles and metal I-beams welded into crosses and positioned on the streets to sluggish tanks. In the federal government district of Kyiv, often a quiet, leafy neighbourhood of places of work and chic, Nineteenth-century condominium blocks, armoured automobiles blocked crossroads.
The vans sped by a warren of courtyards and right into a again entrance to the presidential workplace constructing. Inside the constructing, safety officers escorted journalists by flashlight by darkened corridors stuffed with troopers.
Sandbags had been stacked alongside the windowsills. At doorways, firing positions have been in place to shoot from inside Zelenskyy’s workplace compound onto the road outdoors, suggesting a readiness to carry out even when avenue combating reaches the location.
Zelenskyy thanked the reporters for turning up.
“It’s best to see it with your own eyes,” he mentioned of the town’s preparations for protection. Still, he mentioned, he was doing all he might to barter.
An aerial view reveals a residential constructing destroyed by shelling, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues, within the settlement of Borodyanka within the Kyiv area, Ukraine (Reuters Photo)
Zelenskyy mentioned he was getting about three hours of sleep an evening. His cheeks sagged with weariness. He was, although, animated and gestured energetically to drive residence factors.
Though the briefing was held in a convention room to counsel some modicum of normality, troopers with assault rifles stood within the room and the home windows have been blocked by piles of white sandbags.
He reiterated his request for direct talks with President Vladimir Putin, one thing the Russian chief has rebuffed each earlier than and after the beginning of hostilities.
“It’s not that I want to talk to Putin,” he mentioned. “I need to talk to Putin. The world needs to talk to Putin. There is no other way to stop this war.”
Of the battle and what he described as reviews the Russian military didn’t intend to repatriate its struggle useless to keep away from stirring anti-war sentiment at residence, he mentioned, “this is a nightmare. I cannot even imagine the type of man who would plan such acts.”
Many of the Russian troopers have been 18- and 19-year-olds, mentioned Zelenskyy, who’s 45. He famous that the troopers are concerning the age of his personal daughter and “could be my children.” He added: “They will die in uniforms because of decisions made by men in suits.”
Zelenskyy mentioned he had requested Scholz and Macron to impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine. The concept has been largely rebuffed by Western governments as all however not possible, for risking direct battle between NATO and Russian forces.
But he mentioned that Russian aggression would solely unfold if not stopped in Ukraine. The management in Moscow, he mentioned, would in some unspecified time in the future push on to different Eastern European nations and finally construct a brand new “Berlin Wall.”
VIDEO: ‘Go Home!’ Ukrainians protest towards Russian occupation.
Melitopol residents protest the Russian occupation of their metropolis, gathering in entrance of armed Russian troopers, yelling at them to ‘go home’ and waving Ukrainian flags. Gunshots could be heard in the course of the protest pic.twitter.com/On98s2EBCf
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) March 4, 2022
He criticised German officers for working at cross-purposes with Western efforts to stress Russia right into a settlement within the long-simmering japanese Ukraine struggle by constructing a brand new pure gasoline pipeline, Nord Stream 2, to Russia. The pipeline was meant to supply low cost power for Germany’s economic system, although the venture is now suspended.
Zelenskyy, a former comic who has all the time had a eager sense of picture and storytelling in politics, mentioned he was conscious that his repeated televised appeals for resistance, and continued presence within the beleaguered capital, had turned him into an emblem in lots of nations of bravery and protection of democracy. That was serving to Ukraine, he mentioned.
“I’m very happy the world united” to help Ukraine, mentioned Zelenskyy, who has refused to flee the nation, turning down a reported American evacuation provide. “I need ammunition, not a ride,” he mentioned on the time.
Zelenskyy did have caustic phrases for Prime Minister Naftali Bennett of Israel, who has balanced help for Ukraine with an effort to take care of ties with Russia and had blocked some transfers of weapons to Ukraine that embody Israeli-manufactured components. Zelenskyy, who’s Jewish, famous {that a} Russian missile this week killed 5 civilians on the territory of a Holocaust memorial web site in Kyiv, Babyn Yar. The missile had focused a tv broadcasting tower.
Zelenskyy mentioned he was impressed to see photos of individuals praying on the Western Wall in Jerusalem wrapped in blue and yellow Ukrainian flags. He steered it was time for the Israeli authorities to take an ethical stand. “Everything is tested by this moment,” he mentioned. “I don’t feel that he is wrapped in the flag of Ukraine,” he mentioned of Bennett.
Asked if he was afraid of dying within the struggle, he mentioned everyone has such fears.
“I’m an alive person, like any human being,” he mentioned. “And if a person is not afraid of losing his life, or the lives of his children, there is something unwell about that person.” He added, although, that as president, “I simply do not have the right” to be afraid.
If he weren’t president, he mentioned, he most likely would have joined the volunteers who accepted rifles when the army began handing them out final week, and so could be dealing with dangers in any case. He mentioned he may additionally have chosen to assist by handing out meals to troopers as a substitute. He quipped that, “I am probably not as good a shot as some other people.”