Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky warned Russia on Saturday that continuing its invasion would cost Russia for “generations,” AP reports.
Driving the news: Zelensky said Russian President Vladimir Putin is deliberately creating “a humanitarian catastrophe,” and urged Putin once again to meet with him to prevent more deaths, per AP.
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“Picture for yourself that in that stadium in Moscow there are 14,000 dead bodies and tens of thousands more injured and maimed,” Zelensky said in remarks after Moscow held a pro-war rally.
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“Those are the Russian costs throughout the invasion,” Zelensky said.
The big picture: Putin during Friday’s rally, which marked the eighth anniversary of Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, touted his country’s military forces and invoked patriotic messaging, including by playing the song, “Made in the U.S.S.R.,” per AP.
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“We have not had unity like this for a long time,” Putin told the crowd of approximately 200,000 people, though that number has not been confirmed.
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Putin’s remarks — in which he insisted that his actions in Ukraine were to prevent “genocide” — come as Russians are increasingly facing authoritarian rule at home, with thousands of antiwar protesters having been detained.
Go deeper: Kyiv mayor: Russians missiles hit residential neighborhood with preschool
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