In an interview with the French channel on Wednesday, the Ukrainian president deplored a catastrophic situation in Mariupol, and made it clear that he hoped for the re-election of Emmanuel Macron.
His media interventions from his presidential office on Bankova Street in Kyiv have become a vital routine for him, in order to cultivate and nurture the mobilization of the international community. This Wednesday, President Volodymyr Zelensky responded to BFM TV journalists, Ukrainian flag on his back and khaki fleece worn as usual, to testify to the situation on the south-eastern front of his country on this fifty-sixth day of Russian invasion. And Mariupol in the first place, a port city on the Sea of Azov pounded by the Russians to death, whose pocket of resistance can only be summed up as an industrial complex. “It is not even war anymore, but rather a terrorist action on the part of the Russian Federation, declared the Head of State about the drama of this large agglomeration. Everything was destroyed. 95% of buildings, including schools, kindergartens, living quarters. There is 5% life left in this town. The Russians continue to bomb from the planes, they continue the artillery strikes, they shoot everywhere.
Although a preliminary agreement was found this Wednesday morning between the two camps for the establishment of a humanitarian corridor, President Zelensky was skeptical about its possible realization. “Regarding the humanitarian corridors, we grant them, some people manage to flee, but most of the time the paths are blocked”, he said, referring to multiple failures to safely evacuate civilians from Mariupol. From “thousands of people are still there”, continued Zelensky, some of whom, “children and the elderly” including, took refuge in the Azovstal factory, the last bastion of the Ukrainian army in the city. “We don’t know how many hours or days [nos soldats] can hold, he admitted. We are doing everything we can but today it is Russian military equipment that is preventing us from advancing on the territory of Mariupol” and to come to the aid of the last Ukrainian position on this highly strategic maritime coast.
“There is nothing left to occupy”
In the eastern lands, in the heart of Donbass, the Kremlin’s number one territorial objective, “the Russians have amassed thousands of armed tanks and tens of thousands of troops in this region”, informed Volodymyr Zelensky on BFM TV, considering however that the latter had not yet “mobilized all their means” in the sector and that it could be a “tactical” from Moscow. And even if “the full-scale battle of Donbass has not started”, according to the president’s analysis, every potential small breakthrough by Putin’s troops in the east is a major concern for the Ukrainian government.
“The Russians are advancing and leaving no town behind them, he launched. They do not occupy these cities because there is nothing left to occupy. There is no more building, no more inhabitants.” Before insisting on his desire and his provisions to meet Vladimir Putin and his “bureaucrats” to end the conflict. “We are ready to discuss the issue of the occupied territories, Crimea, Donbass […], but the Russians must back down. The troops should at least withdraw to the line they crossed on February 24. We cannot move towards peace while moving towards war.”
Asked about his relationship with France, and the support of this European neighbor in this war, the Ukrainian president welcomed “diplomatic and humanitarian aid”, but pointed, as usual, to the lack of military support. “I understand the influence of Russian money on the French economy, he developed. I understand that the inner pressure must be quite significant. But President Macron and France must choose, since it is war, between business, money, and the fight for freedom, for human rights, for life quite simply. Would he prefer to see the re-election of his counterpart or the election of Marine Le Pen, persona non grata in his country since his support for the annexation of Crimea by Russia? “It’s a difficult question, I’m not convinced that I have the right, today, to influence what happens at home…” he first tried to dodge. Then, revived on the question by BFM TV, to entrust: “Obviously, I have a relationship with Emmanuel Macron and I wouldn’t want to lose them.”