President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said that in the battles and confrontation of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to the Russian army in Donbas, today it is being decided whether this region and life in it will exist.

“In Donbas, the occupiers are doing everything to destroy any life on this territory. The constant brutal bombardments, the constant Russian attacks on infrastructure and residential areas indicate that Russia wants to make this territory deserted. Therefore, the defense of our land, the protection of our people – it is literally a fight for life,” Zelensky said in a video statement on Friday evening.

“For Lysychansk, Severodonetsk, Popasna, Kramatorsk, Slovyansk, Maryinka and other cities and communities of Donbas that Russian troops want to turn into ruins, everything is decided in this war. Only if Ukraine stands, they will live. If the Russian invaders manage to realize their plans, at least partially, then they still have enough artillery and aviation to destroy our entire Donbas to the stones, as they have already done with Mariupol,” he said.

According to him, Mariupol today is a Russian concentration camp, while the Russians behave more cynically than the Nazis 80 years ago.

“In the city, which was one of the most developed, now it is just a Russian concentration camp among the ruins. And the order of the invaders in that part of Mariupol, which, unfortunately, they still control, in essence, does not differ from what the Nazis did in the occupied territory Eastern Europe. But the Russian military manages to be even more cynical than the Nazis 80 years ago. At least the Nazis did not tell that it was Mariupol residents and the defenders of the city who were shelling and killing themselves,” the president said.

© 2022 Interfax Ukraine