Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky invited his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, to sit down for talks.

"I want to appeal to the president of the Russian Federation once again […] let's sit down at the negotiating table to stop the death of people," Zelensky said in a video message, only a day after Kiev announced that it broke off diplomatic relations with Moscow.

"The fate of Ukraine depends only on us, on the Ukrainians. No one but us will defend our lives," said Zelensky in his address. He went on to say that “Russia still sooner or later must come to negotiate the end of the war with us. The sooner this happens, the less will be the casualties of Russia itself." 

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stressed that Moscow is ready for dialogue with Ukraine at any moment as soon as the Ukrainian military lay down their arms.

On his Telegram channel on Thursday evening, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky released a video addressing Ukraine, saying "We ended up defending our country alone. Who is ready to fight alongside us? I don’t see anyone." 

"Everyone is afraid, everyone is silent," he said. "They replied that <…> they are with us, but are not ready to make us members of the alliance."

Afterward, Zelensky went on to thank countries that helped Ukraine "by deeds, not just by words."