Ukraine cannot concede to Russia's ultimatum, says president

Ukraine cannot fulfill Moscow's ultimatum, as this would only be possible if the Ukrainian people were all but destroyed, the country's president said Monday.

"Ukraine cannot concede to Russia's ultimatum. The only way to make it happen is to decimate us all," Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an interview with Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne.

"We cannot give up Kharkiv, Mariupol, Kyiv. Neither the people of Kharkiv, Mariupol, or Kyiv nor I, the president, can do that," he added, referring to besieged Ukrainian cities, including the capital Kyiv.

Later, Zelenskyy said a final decision on the middle-ground outcome in peace negotiations with Russia can only be reached in an "all-Ukrainian referendum."

The decision concerns security guarantees and temporarily occupied territories, including the issues of security guarantees for Kyiv and the status of Donbas and Crimea, Zelenskyy told Suspilne.

Crimea was invaded by Russia in 2014, while a conflict with Russian-backed separatists in Donbas has taken some 13,000 lives since that time, according to UN figures. On the eve of launching the war, Russia recognized two separatist enclaves in Donbas as "independent."

According to UN estimates, at least 925 civilians have been killed and nearly 1,500 others injured in Ukraine since Russia began its attack on its western neighbor on Feb. 24.

The hostilities have also driven 10 million people from their homes either internally or as refugees abroad, according to the UN refugee agency.