Former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko spoke to N1’s Iva Puljic-Sego from the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv on Thursday.

First of all I would like to ask you, how are you, do you get any sleep, and how is it to be in Kyiv today?

I think the Croatians still remember what it means to sleep during war, how to survive during war.

I’m here in the centre of Kyiv and, less than 10 kilometres away, is the position of Russian troops. Just yesterday, the day before yesterday, there [was] a missile attack, a cruise missile calibre, a ballistic missile, against the civilian objects in Kyiv. Today, for the fourth consecutive day, we are providing evacuation from the Russian-occupied Bucha, Hostomel, Irpin, and Vorzel. I’m proud we have evacuated more than eight thousand people only from these towns, which are completely destroyed. They do not exist anymore. And this is the humanitarian policy of Russia.

I want to thank you, first of all, for delivering the truth from Ukraine, countering the Russian disinformation and fake news campaign, and I want to thank your Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic, who is a strong friend of Ukraine, as well as the whole government, the whole Croatian people, for their unity and solidarity with us.

We definitely think we are fighting for freedom, we are fighting for democracy. This is the fight [against] the devil, who is Putin, who is a crazy maniac [committing] war crimes. Only in the last two days and only in Mariupol, there was, as the mayor reported, more than 1.400 people who died because of the artillery shelling per day. Civilians. Including children. [The Russians] were attacking the maternity [ward] and the children’s hospital, as well as 200 schools, more than 120 hospitals.

This is just a photo [that was shown] all over the world. Do you know what the most shocking fact is? That Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov, who is definitely also a war criminal, said that this was a pre-planned attack on the maternity [ward], on the children’s hospital.

This morning, during the negotiations on Turkey, Mr. Lavrov said that, in the moment of the attack, Ukrainian radicals were in the hospital. How do you answer that?

I just demonstrated the photo. These were pregnant women, newborn children, and this is, by the Russians’ understanding, radical Ukraine. We all now, as soldiers, we are all protecting our soil.

Another photo, by a friend of mine, directly from the maternity hospital, [shows] a newborn baby with its mother. This was an evacuation from the hospital, of the wounded ladies, mothers and children. Pregnant women. This is the best evidence that the most radical Ukrainians, by Lavrov’s understanding, are our children. That’s why he killed more than 50 children in Ukraine just in these two weeks.

If that is not a war criminal, then what is a war criminal? If there is no responsibility for that, for what should there be responsibility?

But I am proud of our troops and our soldiers, created in the year 2014 when I was President during those five years of my term, today we have one of the strongest armies in the world. And we are proud that we stopped the biggest military machine in the world. A criminal one. And the only thing in our nation, in our country, is that we just want to be free. We want to be democratic.

You say Mr. Lavrov is lying, you have shown us the pictures. Is there any chance that the Ukrainian and Russian side, through negotiations, can come to some sort of a deal and stop this war in Ukraine?

I just want to remind you that the war started in 2014. It’s been for eight years already in Ukraine. I think this is not a war against Ukraine. This is a war against the entire West. Against our values.

In this situation, there is definitely no other nation that wants peace like Ukraine. We support the diplomatic efforts we are undertaking, and we are now demonstrating a unique unity. We don’t have the government and the opposition anymore, anything like that, all of us are united around Ukraine, and all of us are in the position of protecting our nation.

We definitely strongly support the solution for the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine, for ceasefire.

But I have very negative experiences after five years of negotiations with Putin, because we cannot trust Putin. Many, many times Putin promised me ceasefire, [that he will] release all the hostages, withdraw his troops. Never, not one single time, did he keep his word.

And do you know why? Because he thinks that he can go on further attacks. Putin will go as far as we allow him to go.

And I am proud that we have freed from Russian troops two thirds of the occupied Donbas in the year 2014-15. But now he did not stop, he attacked us further. And he will not stop in Ukraine. He will go further. If, today, he is fighting to create a land connection between Crimea and Donbas, no one will stop him – if we now lose – when he wants to create a connection between Russia and Kaliningrad through Lithuania. That’s why we should be united, that’s why we should receive the state-of-the-art anti-tank, anti-aircraft, and anti-missile weapons, and that’s why a strong Ukrainian army with Western weapons will stop Russia and protect Europe from this crazy maniac.

Do you think that the West, the EU, the United States, should do more to help you in defence against the Russian aggressor?

Definitely, definitely. We are firstly asking [NATO] to close our airspace. They said no, that it means NATO would be involved in the war. I have bad news: NATO is already in the war. And you should understand that.

And in that situation, we said at least, if there is no no-fly zone, we want to have Soviet-made MiG-29 fighter jets. We have the best pilots in the world and we will attack modern Russian military jets, protecting the nuclear power stations, protecting civilian objects, and protecting the Ukrainian sky. And in this situation, definitely, this is a win-win form of cooperation.

We very much welcome the decision of the Polish government, we’re waiting for the same decision from the Romanian government, from Czech and Slovakian governments, and from the German government. Also, the soldiers from my battalion are staying in Kyiv, but we have only nine anti-tank rocket launchers. We need more to stop Russian tanks.

Poland is willing to give you those jets, but Pentagon rejected this offer.

We can receive them without Pentagon. You should understand, we delivered this information: every single hour of war without these fighter jets means additional lives of Ukrainians given for Putin’s disaster. Every single hour. This is the blood of Ukrainians.

We are ready to receive [the jets] from anywhere. From Poland, from Romania, from Germany, directly, indirectly. This is important.

First of all, we very much appreciate the European Union for the assistance they already gave. We still remember that. This is important. We very much appreciate the sanctions that were introduced. This is an extremely important and right thing to do. But every single day that Putin refuses to withdraw his troops, every single day he continues to kill Ukrainians, sanctions should be growing.

And again, Croatia [chose] an absolutely great and right position, under the leadership of your Prime Minister Plenkovic. Croatia did the extremely right thing, [supporting] giving us the status of a candidate for the future membership of the European Union, for Article 49. This is extremely important. So, more weapons, more sanctions, candidate status, and support for the new Marshall Plan for Ukraine. These are the four things necessary to do now. And we’re counting on you, we count on the Croatian people.

If you will have to defend yourselves as you are doing now, how long – if the Russians take Kyiv – how long can you last? Kyiv Mayor, Mr Klitschko, said in an interview yesterday that Kyiv could defend itself for only two weeks.

First of all, we’ve already done the absolutely important thing in that we [ruined] Putin’s scenario of blitzkrieg. Putin wanted to capture Ukraine within 36 hours. Today we are already in the 15th day of war.

Secondly, we will never give up. The Ukrainian people are united as never before. Putin expected that the Ukrainian people will welcome him with flowers. But we did it with Molotov cocktails. Every single town, every single street, and every single house is hell for the Russian soldiers.

And as for how long the Russian occupation will last, the more weapons we receive, the stronger the sanctions are, the shorter the Russian occupation will be, even if we fight alone.

You already said that you are all united in Ukraine, that there is no more distinction between the government and the opposition. Are you satisfied with the way that Mr. Zelenskyy, the President of Ukraine, is leading the country in this crisis?

We are not discussing the sixth president and we are not discussing the fifth president. Immediately after the 24th of February, I proposed to Zelenskyy that we meet and discuss our further coordination. We have already had a few meetings with great coordination, because we are equal now. There is no more President, members of Parliament, members of the government, members of the opposition. We, all Ukrainians, we are all soldiers.

And this is what the Ukrainian people want to see and what the world wants to see. We are setting the example of how we should act to our foreign partners.

Because, what did Putin expect? First, he did not expect that we will be in the country and united, he tried to find the fifth column here inside Ukraine. And that is not happening. Bravo to the Ukrainian people.

Secondly, he really counted on the NATO member states and the European Union member states never uniting for such strong sanctions. Bravo to the European Union, to the United States and other NATO states for this unity. But, please, don’t stop. Go further. Be decisive. This is the only way you can save the world.

I stand firm behind the sixth president during this negotiation, the meetings and the efforts, because this is the way we can beat Putin. This is how we can win this war, because the truth is with us, we are fighting for our own land, for our own people, our children, women, and definitely we will win.

Do you think that Vladimir Putin is furious? The foreign media write about his fury because he did not win in this blitzkrieg, he didn’t beat Ukraine in just one, two, or three days. Do you think he is furious because of this situation?

First of all, I’m not interested in whether he’s furious or not. We in Ukraine only have one answer for him: Putin, get out of Ukraine. Russian troops, get out of Ukraine. We have even stronger words [than that]. Do you know where [he belongs]? His place is in the Hague tribunal, as a war criminal. At the end of the day, I don’t see any other version for him. And my piece of advice for Putin: Look very attentively at the case of (Slobodan) Milosevic. You will sit on the same bench.

Extracts from the interview can be seen below: