Is it a breakthrough? - Zelensky open to territorial negotiations on one condition

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said late on Monday he was prepared to discuss a commitment from Ukraine not to seek NATO membership in exchange for a ceasefire, the withdrawal of Russian troops and a guarantee of Ukraine’s security.

It’s a compromise for everyone: for the West, which doesn’t know what to do with us with regard to NATO, for Ukraine, which wants security guarantees, and for Russia, which doesn’t want further NATO expansion,

Zelenskyy said late Monday in an interview with Ukrainian television channels.

He also repeated his call for direct talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying that unless he meets with Putin, it is impossible to understand whether Russia even wants to stop the war.

However, he earlier said that

anything put into Ukrainian law would have to be subject to a referendum.

Zelensky added Kyiv will be ready to discuss the status of Crimea and the eastern Donbas region held by Russian-backed separatists after a ceasefire and steps toward providing security guarantees.

Earlier, the Ukrainian president claimed Russia had shelled along a humanitarian corridor, wounding four children who were among civilians being evacuated on Monday.

He said the shelling took place in the Zaporizhzhia region, the initial destination of those fleeing the besieged southern city of Mariupol.

The Ukrainian government said that about 3,000 people from Mariupol were evacuated on Monday.

Zelenksky also said his country will never bow to ultimatums from Russia and cities directly under attack, including the capital, Kyiv, and Mariupol and Kharkiv would not accept Russian occupation, the Guardian reported.

Zelensky said his country would be “destroyed” before it surrenders its cities to invading Russian forces.

The Ukrainian president made clear his countrymen would not “hand over” the capital, the eastern city of Kharkiv, or the heavily bombarded and besieged Mariupol.

Ukraine cannot fulfil Russian ultimatums. We should be destroyed first.

300,000 people without water

A Ukrainian MP originally from Mariupol has said Russia is trying to starve the besieged city, Sky News reported.

Dmytro Gurin, an MP for Kyiv, said "years of his past" had been destroyed by Kremlin forces and thousands in the Black Sea port continued to live without water, heating and electricity.

He said: "It's hard to see that everything I knew has been destroyed, my school, university, neighbourhood, everything.

"Years of my past have been destroyed. It's just my feeling and I will get used to it but for the 300,000 people who still live in Mariupol it's much more important.

They live without heating, electricity, water and it's medieval conditions and shelling and shooting in Mariupol never stops.

'The shelling never stops and the shooting never stops.'Ukrainian MP Dmytro Gurin says Ukrainians are living in https://t.co/iOm40vn1kt

— Sky (News) March 22, 2022

"It’s not war any more. We clearly see that Russia wants to start hunger just to force its diplomatic position," he added.

Gurin said he was currently “very pessimistic” about a diplomatic resolution to the situation, saying that any agreement with Vladimir Putin would be worth “less than the paper it was written on”, according to the Guardian.

Deputy PM wants humanitarian corridor out of Mariupol

Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk has made a new appeal to Russia to allow humanitarian supplies into the besieged southern city of Mariupol and to let civilians leave.

Reuters report she said on Ukrainian television:

We demand the opening of a humanitarian corridor for civilians.

Vereshchuk also said Russia’s armed forces were preventing humanitarian supplies reaching residents of the southern city of Kherson.

Earlier, Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said in a televised interview that one of Russian’s main priorities is to take control of the capital Kyiv, but trying to do so was “suicide”. He also said active hostilities between Ukraine and Russia could end within two to three weeks.

Cover photo: MTI /Ukraine's Presidential Press Office