Zelensky warns Russia: The price of refusing to settle will be heavy
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on Saturday for comprehensive peace talks with Moscow to stop its invasion of his country, or it would take "several generations before Russia recovers from the losses it suffered in the war".
The price of refusing a settlement would be heavy, Zelensky said. "I want everyone to hear me now, especially in Moscow. It's time to meet, it's time to talk... It's time to restore Ukraine's territorial integrity and restore justice. Otherwise, Russia's losses will be so severe that it will make Recovery from it takes generations.
Russia acknowledged on March 2 that about 500 of its soldiers had died, but it has not provided an update to the number since then.
Ukraine says the number is now several thousand.
Reuters is unable to independently verify the death toll.
Interfax quoted Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying that Moscow expects to end its operations in Ukraine with the signing of a comprehensive agreement on security issues, including Ukraine's neutral status.
On Saturday, the Russian Defense Ministry said it had destroyed a large underground warehouse for missiles and aircraft ordnance in the Ivano-Frankivsk region of western Ukraine using hypersonic missiles, which can fly to their designated targets at five times the speed of sound or more. This is the first time that Russia has used these missiles in Ukraine, Interfax news agency reported.
A spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force Command confirmed the attack but said the Ukrainian side had no information about the type of missiles used.
The Ukrainian authorities said today, Saturday, that they had not detected any significant changes on the fighting fronts during the past 24 hours, noting that the cities of Mariupol, Mykolaiv and Kherson in the south and Izyum in the east are still witnessing the fiercest fighting.
More than 3.3 million refugees have fled across Ukraine's western borders, while another two million have been internally displaced.
Efforts to evacuate civilians from besieged cities continued through "humanitarian corridors".
Ukrainian authorities said they hope to open 10 lanes on Saturday.
The West imposed unprecedented sanctions on Russia with the aim of crippling Russia's economy and exhausting its war machine, but these sanctions did not succeed in stopping what Putin called a "special operation" to disarm Ukraine and cleanse it of "Nazis".
Kyiv and its Western allies described this as an unfounded excuse for war.
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