Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said this in an interview with a number of online media outlets, including Ukrinform.
"We are in contact with our guys who stay in the blocked plant. We are in contact with them. We talk to them at different levels every day. We support them as much as we can. But they know that they are carrying out one of the most powerful and important missions today, and this is true. Indeed, the enemy is afraid of them because today there are six times more Russian troops there," Zelensky said, adding that the enemy has dozens of times more equipment than Ukrainian defenders.
The president added that "not a very large part" of Mariupol is controlled by the Ukrainian military.
According to him, there is a humanitarian crisis in the city, with a lack of food, water and no medicines.
"Nevertheless, our guys are heroically defending. We are grateful to them for that. Words of gratitude are definitely not enough, so certain plans and negotiation processes are being worked out. To be honest, there is no trust in the Russian negotiators regarding Mariupol," Zelensky said.
He said that there was an agreement on a humanitarian corridor mediated by Turkey, but Russia refused "at some point."
Zelensky also stressed that there are no accurate statistics on the situation in Mariupol, adding that "many people have disappeared."
Earlier reports said that Russian aggression caused one of the biggest humanitarian catastrophes in Mariupol. The invaders are bombing unarmed residents and blocking humanitarian aid.
Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boichenko said that up to 20,000 civilians had been killed in the city since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion. According to the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, 13 Russian mobile crematoriums were registered in Mariupol to clean the streets from the bodies of dead civilians. The invaders are trying to identify and destroy all potential witnesses to Russian atrocities.
About 120,000 civilians remain trapped in Mariupol. The invaders seize their Ukrainian passports and forcibly take them to Russia and "DPR/LPR."
Soldiers of the Azov Regiment, Ukrainian Marines and motorized riflemen continue to defend Mariupol.
