Zelenskiy invites Germany’s Scholz to visit Ukraine on Russia’s Victory Day

Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has urged the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, to make a powerful political statement by visiting Kyiv on 9 May, the day German leaders have often travelled to Moscow to mark Russia's Victory Day, a memorial to the 27 million Russians killed in the second world war.

The invitation to Scholz and the German president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, follows weeks of intense Ukrainian criticism of Germany over its reluctance to supply weapons or support an EU-wide embargo on Russian energy imports. Germany is especially dependent on Russia for gas and says it would suffer more from an embargo than Russia.

Without mentioning Germany specifically, Zelenskiy said: "Even now there are some people who want to get some oxygen without even attempting to breathe. They want to strike a balance. They want to be in the grey area, stay in the shadow, or to be walking in between the drops of rain. But there are no drops any more. It is pouring and everyone is soaking wet."

Speaking to the the British thinktank Chatham House, Zelenskiy offered to hold talks with Russia if it returned to the territory it held inside Ukraine before the 24 February invasion. He said the offer would be withdrawn if Ukrainian military or civilians were attacked during the evacuation of Mariupol.

"If Russia kills civilians or soldiers who could be released, we cannot conduct diplomatic negotiations with them," Zelenskiy said.

He repeated Ukrainian claims that the Russians were preparing a victory parade in the long besieged city on 9 May, but added: "Mariupol will never fall, and I'm not talking about heroism, but there is nothing left to fall apart, it is already devastated and has no structure."

Ukrainian officials accused Russia of violating a ceasefire on Friday aimed at evacuating scores of civilians trapped in a bombed-out steelworks in Mariupol.