Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that he wanted to show the whole world that Ukraine has a very strong army, but it does not want to provoke. He said the army is fighting for our country, but if they open fire, it will be in response to enemy fire.

"As for 'just stop shooting,' this is a complicated process. And I never called for our army not to respond [to shelling]. I wanted to show the whole world, and now we are doing that. We have a very strong army, but we don't provoke, we fight for our country, and if they shoot at us, we shoot back. But we won't shoot first," Zelensky said during a press conference in Kyiv on Wednesday.

The head of state also noted that a month and a half of the COVID-19 pandemic, the occupying authorities of Donbas did not let dozens of OSCE vehicles enter Russia-occupied areas of Donbas.

Zelensky said only Russia can influence Russia-occupation forces in Donbas.

"I'm sure that what they are doing today, those provocations they are directed against Ukraine only because they don't know what to do because of the humanitarian crisis that is taking place there," the president said.