This article was originally published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and is reprinted with permission.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has again ruled out talks with Russia to end Moscow’s war against his country and said the situation in the recently liberated Kharkiv region is “just as terrible” as it was after Russian troops retreated from the towns of Irpin and Bucha, where mass graves were discovered.
Speaking in an online Q&A session with members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on October 13, Zelenskiy also said his country has only 10 percent of what it needs for its air defense to repel Russian air strikes during a week when rockets and missiles have rained down on cities from Lviv in the west to Kyiv in central Ukraine and Kharkiv in the east.
“Today, with Russia, there cannot be diplomacy as there used to be. There cannot be respect for the leadership of a country that kills, captures, does not respect international law,” Zelenskiy said.
Russia has pounded Ukraine in recent days with dozens of rockets and missiles, hitting several civilian targets.
NATO defense ministers are meeting in Brussels on the topic of air defense aid for Ukraine, which Zelenskiy said were needed to help bring Russia to the negotiating table.
“We must protect our sky from the terror of Russia. If this is done, it will be a fundamental step to end the entire war as soon as possible,” he said.
Zelenskiy told the session his government is spending billions of dollars each month, mostly for the armed forces, which leaves it little to repair infrastructure regularly damaged by Russian missile strikes and keep up educational facilities and everyday life in Ukrainian towns and cities.
The Ukrainian leader praised the United Nations General Assembly for its October 12 condemnation of Russia’s recent move to annex four Ukrainian regions, calling it “a powerful” result for Ukraine, and “a loss” for Russia.
“This clearly indicated how the world is now united in its support for Ukraine,” Zelenskiy said.
Russia’s latest strikes come after weeks of a counteroffensive by Ukrainian troops that have seen them take larges swathes of territory back from retreating Russian forces.
Zelenskiy also said Ukrainian armed forces have discovered evidence proving “war crimes committed by Russian troops” in some of the recently liberated parts of the Kharkiv region.
“The crimes committed there were the same as those committed by Russian armed forces in the towns of Bucha and Irpin [near Kyiv],” Zelenskiy said.
Numerous bodies of Ukrainian civilians had been found in mass burial sites and graves in the Kharkiv region after Russia troops had been forced from there by Ukrainian forces in September.
Russia has denied its troops have committed any crimes in Ukrainian territories occupied by its armed forces.
