Zelensky: Russian President Putin is responsible for war crimes

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky believes that Russian President Vladimir Putin is also responsible for war crimes committed by the Russian military in Ukraine.

"Everyone who made these decisions, issued orders, fulfilled... There are people who voted for annexation, occupation... You cannot say that 'I gave the order to take Mariupol' and then say that 'I am not to blame. The thing that, 'when taken Mariupol, cut off limbs, it is not my fault.' You are all bound. From your order to execution - the distance and there are corpses at this distance," he said in an interview with the 60 Minutes program on the American CBS television channel, published on Monday by the President's Office of Ukraine.

"They have a rigid vertical of following orders. We could talk and meet earlier [with the President of Russia]... He could have prevented this. Now you cannot close your eyes and say that 'I did not do this.' If you [Putin] think that you did not do it, then you must say it in the eyes of the world," the head of state said.

According to Zelensky, "they [the Russians] think that if Ukraine is destroyed, no one will remember what the Russian troops did."

"It is impossible to destroy the entire people. You [Putin] is already not shaking hands. The whole world will not forget this. Everything is there: video, audio, there will be books, memories," the president said.