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Zelensky thanks UK for reopening embassy in Kyiv and says life is returning to normal in liberated areas

23 April 2022 06:02 (UTC +04:00)

Zelensky also reacted to an announcement made by a Russian general earlier on Friday regarding Moscow's aim to create a land corridor between Ukraine's eastern Donbas region and Crimea. The general said that control over Ukraine's south would give Russian forces access to Transnistria, a separatist statelet in Moldova, where a contingent of Russian forces has been stationed since the early 1990s, APA reports citing TASS.

“Allegedly there, in Moldova, the rights of Russian speakers are violated. Although, to be honest, the territory in which Russia should take care of the rights of Russian speakers is Russia itself — where there is no freedom of speech, no freedom of choice. Where there is simply no right to dissent. Where poverty thrives and where human life is worthless,” Zelensky said regarding the announcement.
He went on to say that this “only proves” that the Russian invasion of Ukraine “was intended only as a beginning, then they want to capture other countries.”

The Ukrainian president also thanked Ukraine’s allies who have been supplying weapons.

“I am grateful to all our partners who finally heard us, who provide us with exactly what we asked for,” he said. “Because we know for sure that with these weapons, we will be able to save the lives of thousands of people. And we will be able to show the occupiers that the day when they will be forced to leave Ukraine is approaching.”

Zelensky said normal life is returning to areas that have been freed from Russian control and that 184 settlements have been de-mined, humanitarian operations are taking place in more than 500 liberated settlements, and medical and educational services along with financial institutions are also returning to many settlements.

Transportation infrastructure is being restored at a “fairly fast pace” with 96 settlements regaining transportation connections on Friday, 183 settlements now with functioning gas stations and 90 settlements with restored electricity, he added.

“The return of Ukraine to cities and communities means the return of life in the full sense of these words,” Zelensky said, adding, “I believe that such a return will take place in the south of our country and in the east of Ukraine. In all areas where degradation, destruction and death have been brought under the Russian flag.”