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Russia-Ukraine crisis: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky once again invited his Russian counterpart for talks, saying that it's the only way to "end the war" and that he's ready for "negotiations". He also reiterated that if talks fail, it "would mean that this is a Third World War".
"I'm ready for negotiations with him (Russia's Vladimir Putin)," Zelensky told CNN show "Fareed Zakaria GPS". "I think without negotiations, we can't end this war," the Ukrainian leader said through a translator.
Even though Russia continues its military assault on key regions of Ukraine, the war-torn country has accused Putin-led Russia of committing war crimes, in which many children and women have been killed.
In the city of Mariupol, around 400 residents who had taken shelter at an art school have been killed by Russian forces. Zelensky said earlier that Russia's siege of the port city of Mariupol was "a terror that will be remembered for centuries to come". During the CNN interview, Zelensky said: "Russian forces have come to exterminate us, to kill us."
Zelensky said if there is just one per cent chance for us to stop this war, I think that we need to take this chance. "...to have the possibility of negotiating, the possibility of talking to Putin," he said, adding that if these attempts fail, that would mean that this is a third world war. The Ukrainian president has time and again warned that if Russia-Ukraine tensions continue to escalate, it could mushroom into an all-out global war.
Putin, in his war cry, has warned to eradicate "neo-Nazi thugs", "drug addicts" and "pro-western" leanings in Ukraine. The entire conflict has created a refugee crisis in Ukraine, with the number of refugees fleeing the country increasing to 2 million. "The war in Ukraine is so devastating that 10 million have fled either displaced inside the country or as refugees abroad," the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said on Twitter.
With AFP inputs
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