Zelensky warns against Russia's de-escalation announcement: "We don't believe in anyone, not even a nice phrase"

On Wednesday (30) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed his lack of confidence in the Russian announcement to stop the escalation of the invasion of his country, and stressed that his army was preparing for more intense fighting in the east.

“We don’t believe anyone, not a single beautiful phrase,” Zelensky said in a video clip targeting his compatriots, warning that Russian forces are regrouping to launch an attack on the Donbass region in the Far East.

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“We will not offer anything. We will fight for every meter of our land,” he added.

After a new round of peace talks in Istanbul on Tuesday, a Russian negotiator said Moscow would “drastically” reduce its operations around the capital, Kyiv, and the northern city of Chernihiv.

But the bombing continued the next night.

A senior US Defense Department official said, on Wednesday (30), that Russian forces began withdrawing from the facilities of the dissolved Chernobyl nuclear power plant north of Kyiv.

In his video, Zelensky claimed that any withdrawal of Russian forces was “the result of the work of our defenders” and again called for the delivery of weapons to the international community, including tanks, aircraft and artillery systems.

“Liberty must be armed like tyranny,” he said.