Zelenskyy says negotiations could end if Ukrainian fighters in Mariupol are killed by Russian forces, calls situation in city 'inhuman'

• Zelenskyy said negotiations could end if Russian forces kill Ukraine's remaining defenders in Mariupol.
• The Ukrainian president said the conditions in Mariupol are "inhuman" after weeks of fighting in the city.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday said that negotiations could end if Russian military forces kill Ukraine's remaining defenders in Mariupol, according to The Guardian.

"The destruction of all our guys in Mariupol – what they are doing now – can put an end to any format of negotiations. I think it is their big mistake to say that they really want to end the war," he told Ukrainian media during an interview.

He stated that the conditions in Mariupol are "just inhuman" after weeks of Ukrainians fighting back against Moscow and said that Russia "is deliberately trying to destroy everyone who is there."

Russia on Sunday called on Ukrainian defenders in Mariupol to put down their arms, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Zelenskyy said that his country would not be keen on negotiating with Russia if the country continued to mercilessly attack civilians and soldiers.

"The stronger we are, the better the outcome of these talks will be. The more Borodyanka-like cases appear, there will be no chance that negotiations will be held actually," he said, referencing a town northwest of Kyiv that was ravaged by weeks of Russian occupation.

Zelenskyy last week said that the terror unleashed in Borodyanka was "much more horrific" than even the grisly deaths in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha, where mass civilian killings were discovered after the departure of Russian forces.

There is already information that the number of victims of the occupiers may be even higher in Borodyanka and some other liberated cities," the Ukrainian leader said earlier this month.

He continued: "In many villages of the liberated districts of the Kyiv, Chernihiv, and Sumy regions, the occupiers did things that the locals had not seen even during the Nazi occupation 80 years ago. The occupiers will definitely bear responsibility for this."

Zelenskyy on Saturday said that there needed to be a discussion about Crimea — and the Donbas region between Ukraine and Russia — but shared that talks would not be easy since Moscow has its sights on seizing part of the country's land.

"I think we need to talk about it," he said of the status of the aforementioned regions. "And find a model that may not give an answer to what to do with it today, but it will definitely allow everyone to become sober. ... When the fighting is over and the war is over, we can think of diplomacy."

Zelenskyy then discussed the strains of negotiating the end of an ongoing conflict.

"They want to resolve issues diplomatically when there is a war. This is very difficult. And that's why they want to take away some of our territory, to occupy more to put pressure," he said.

He added: "And why do we meet? Why should I meet if they want to occupy the whole territory?"

The Russian defense ministry on Saturday said that save Ukrainian fighters who have continued to fight for the area, "the entire urban area of Mariupol is completely cleared."

Pavlo Kiryienka, the governor of the Donetsk region, said during a Friday appearance on CNN that the port city "has been wiped off the face of the earth by the Russian Federation."

"The enemy cannot seize Mariupol. The enemy may seize the land that Mariupol used to stand on, but the city of Mariupol is no more," he said.