De-occupation of Ukrainian territories should not lead to death of people – Zelensky
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has said that the occupation of territories by the Armed Forces of Ukraine should not lead to the death of people.
"It is difficult for us in the east because there is not enough of an appropriate amount of weapons. A large number of equipment, armed formations, battalions of both the Russian Federation and traitors who are collaborators from the so-called ‘L/DPR’ are concentrated there. They have concentrated a lot of forces to fulfill one or another plan of the Russian Federation. We have heard a lot about the plans of the Russian Federation tied to symbols and dates … We don't care what plans the Russian Federation has ... Our plans are clear – we will de-occupy all this," Zelensky said at a briefing with the President of Slovakia in Kyiv on Tuesday.
At the same time, the Head of state stressed that the main circumstance in the issue of Ukraine's de-occupation of its territories will be the preservation of people's lives.
"We are not tied to the dates of de-occupation. We get attached to people. If certain steps of our operation to de-occupy a particular region are associated with tens of thousands of our dead people, then we will wait for the appropriate weapons to save our people as much as possible. They are the ones who occupy the territories. First of all, we must think as much as possible about our people who are able to fight back against all the plans of the Russian Federation," he said.
Earlier, Russian officials announced plans for the Russian army to reach the border of Donetsk and Luhansk regions by the end of June.