Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday that the rigours of nearly three years of war did not allow for changes in mobilisation rules because if soldiers left for home en masse, Russian President Vladimir Putin "will kill us all", APA reports citing Reuters.
Zelenskyy told Italian journalist Cecilia Sala, who was released this month after being detained for 21 days in Iran, that the toll of war on Ukrainians and their families underscored the need to bring the conflict rapidly to an end.
Parliament approved new mobilisation rules last year to boost numbers of those at the front, but Ukraine's fighting forces are still badly outnumbered by their Russian adversaries.
"The wartime situation calls for mobilisation of people and all the resources we have in the country. Absolutely all of them," Zelenskyy said in the interview, excerpts of which were posted on the president's Telegram channel.
"And, unfortunately, that is the challenge of this war and that is why we have to speed things up to the maximum to end it, to oblige Russia to end this war," Zelenskyy said.
"Today, we are defending ourselves. If tomorrow, for instance, half the army heads home, we really should have surrendered on the very first day. That is how it is. If half the army goes home, Putin will kill us all."
