Zelenskyy says Mariupol can't fall apart because 'it is already devastated'
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Sinéad Baker
May 6, 2022, 20:05 IST
Women walk past a destroyed apartment building in Mariupol, in territory under the government of the Donetsk People's Republic, eastern Ukraine, Monday, May 2, 2022.AP Photo/Alexei Alexandrov
Zelenskyy said Mariupol cannot fall because the city is already "devastated."
"There is no place, there is no structure, it is all destroyed completely," he said.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the besieged city of Mariupol cannot fall to Russia because it is already completely destroyed.
Zelenskyy addressed the UK's Chatham House think tank on Friday, where he was asked if there was anything that Ukraine could do to stop the city from being taken by Russia.
"There is nothing there to fall apart," Zelenskyy said. "It is already devastated. There is no place, there is no structure, it is all destroyed completely."
Zelenskyy said that the resistance is in "what remains" of the steel plant.
The Ukrainian president's language mirrored that of other officials.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said: "The city doesn't exist anymore. The remaining of the Ukrainian army and large group of civilians are basically encircled by the Russian forces."
Some civilians have been evacuated, but the United Nations and Ukraine are still trying to get more out.
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Ukraine has also been trying to evacuate citizens from the wider city, and officials say they have not been able to access food and water.
The port city of Mariupol is somewhere that offers Russia a big advantage, by effectively giving Russia control over the land route from Russian-controlled Crimea and the eastern Donbas region.
Zelenskyy said on Friday that Ukraine would be able to remove the Russian blockade from Mariupol if it had the right equipment.
Ukrainian officials have pledged to retake all parts of the country from Russia and to rebuild what has been destroyed.
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