President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has commented on Vladimir Putin’s statement about his readiness to carry out a ‘humanitarian mission’ in Kostiantynivka, where fighting has been ongoing for a year and a half. He called it a reflexive response to Russia’s failure to capture the city.
Putin simply wants the Ukrainian army to withdraw from Kostiantynivka so that Russia can occupy it. Speaking to journalists, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he had explained his position on the city to the United States.
“It’s an absolutely primitive move, because otherwise he cannot get this city,” Zelenskyy believes.
There are both Ukrainian and Russian troops in Kostiantynivka.
“We did everything to allow civilians to leave. We evacuate at the first opportunity. And it is the Russians who are killing everything that lives there. If we give up Kostiantynivka, their next steps will be other cities in Donbas. That is the philosophy behind this idea. In Oleshky we had one success — the most important one: people were unblocked, but do not forget who blocked them and why. The ‘Russians’ blocked people, laid mines there. People were left without food. I asked our lads to use drones to deliver food, water and so on — and people there received food and water. Then, through the American team, Melania Trump sincerely proposed this idea to truly save these people. And it is wonderful that we unblocked them and evacuated them from there. But if you look at the satellite images, you will see that the Russians brought in a lot of different weapons and strengthened their positions in Oleshky. So what will happen to Kostiantynivka then?” the President noted.
He added that if Russia cared about civilian lives, it could have proposed similar operations in villages near Oleshky. Commander-in-Chief Mykhailo Drapatyi drew up a list of such settlements — about eight of them. The list was passed to the United States, but Russia offered no solutions for them and instead mentioned Kostiantynivka.
- The General Staff of the Armed Forces said the enemy used the ceasefire regime in Oleshky and the surrounding area immediately after the mission ended. For how exactly the occupiers strengthened their positions during the rescue of Ukrainian civilians, read Tetiana Nehoda’s interview: “Yevhen Voronetskyi, the ‘Borysfen’ Brigade: “‘The ceasefire regime in Oleshky set us back by two months’”.