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Jan Heidtmann, Kyiv
After almost two hours, Volodymyr Zelensky ends his performance the way he started it: combative, indomitable. “We will meet when we have liberated Mariupol,” he told the assembled journalists. “And I think that moment is coming fast.” Tragically, that’s almost unthinkable right now – while the Ukrainian president is speaking, the Russian military has begun shelling the Asvostal Steel Works from land, air and sea. The facility is the last place of resistance in the city, the remaining troops of Ukraine and probably 1000 civilians have entrenched themselves here. But at this moment the president just wants to send a signal to the world: the Ukrainians will never capitulate to the Russians. “We will take back our territory,” Zelensky said.