“There will be no quiet place on this earth for you – except for the grave.”
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has given another impassioned address to the world, warning that Russian forces will face major retribution for their actions thus far.
Noting that Sunday (6 March) represented ‘Forgiveness Sunday’, Zelensky stated that the words associated with forgiveness have “lost their meaning” in light of the ongoing invasion of his country.
“We will not forgive the destroyed houses,” he said.
“We will not forgive the missile that our air defence shot down over Okhmatdyt today. And more than 500 other such missiles that hit our land. All over Ukraine. Hit our people and children.
“We will not forgive the shooting of unarmed people. Destruction of our infrastructure.
“We. Will. Not. Forgive.”
Clip via Guardian News
“How many such families have died in Ukraine?” Zelensky continued.
“We will not forgive. We will not forget. We will punish everyone who committed atrocities in this war on our land.
“We will find every bastard who shot at our cities, our people, who bombed our land, who launched rockets,” he added.
“There will be no quiet place on this earth for you – except for the grave.”
As of Monday morning, Russia will enact a ceasefire and open humanitarian corridors in several Ukrainian cities, according to communication issued by its ministry of defence.
A humanitarian corridor operates as a demilitarised zone during times of conflict, temporarily allowing for humanitarian aid to be distributed and for the safe passage of citizens seeking to flee affected regions.
Over 1.5 million Ukrainian citizens have reportedly fled the country since the Russian invasion officially began on Thursday, 24 February.
Moscow said the decision to open the corridors was granted following a personal request made by French president Emmanuel Macron directly to Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
The announcement from the Russian defence ministry follows reports that previously proposed ceasefires haven’t been adhered to thus far.
Mariupol, a large city in the south east of Ukraine, was set to evacuate civilians on Saturday (5 March) following an agreement with Russian forces for temporary peace.
The evacuation was delayed, however, following a sustained assault against the city.
The latest corridors – the third such attempt at successfully establishing them – are reportedly being set up on Monday morning (7 March) in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Mariupol, and Sumy, with pre-arranged routes set to take refugees into Russia.
It is unclear how long the corridors will be in place for.
Previous iterations have lasted less than an hour.
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