Russia does not protect Russian speakers but imposes its narratives militarily - Zelensky

President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke of this during a press conference with the Danish media, an Ukrinform reports citing the president's press service.

"They came up with a narrative that they are protecting Russian speakers, but most of the cities they completely destroyed, where there are no buildings or people left, were mostly inhabited by Russian speakers. And these people are now switching to Ukrainian because they are shocked at what the Russian army has done to them," Zelensky said.

The president stressed that for the past eight years, Russia has been invading Ukraine’s territories by military means, holding some conditional referendums at gun point, totally beyond the legal framework, beyond international law.

According to the Ukrainian leader, the Russian military in Ukraine rapes women, kidnaps children, forcibly deports Ukrainian citizens to Russia, stripping them of their IDs and rights.

Zelensky stressed that today it’s the Russian president alone who decides whether to order the Russian army to stop or not.