KIEV, March 13, 2022 (BSS/TASS) - Western countries are helping Ukraine, but
Kiev is yet to pay for it, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has said.

"The money allocated by Europe and other nations are spent only on
humanitarian aid or weapons. Sometimes we receive weapons directly, but you
have to understand that everything has its price," he said. "Whenever the
money that we get is mentioned - well, it all came at a cost, it's not for
free."

In late February, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky requested the EU to
let his country join the union immediately. Ukraine's application for EU
membership under the accelerated procedure has been accepted, registered and
is being considered, Head of the Office of the Ukrainian President Andrey
Yermak said on March 1.

The heads of EU states and governments, who gathered for an informal summit
in France's Versailles, expressed their solidarity with Ukraine in a joint
statement, but stopped short of granting the candidate status to Kiev.
According to the final statement, EU will keep strengthening its ties with
Ukraine, which belongs to the "European family." However, according to Dutch
Prime Minister Mark Rutte, the process of Ukraine's accession to EU may take
months or even years.

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said that both Russia and the West
should provide security guarantees to his country.

"Apart from the Russian Federation, the security guarantees should be
provided by other leaders as well," he said in an interview to foreign media
on Saturday.

The Ukrainian president said NATO offered no protection to his country.

"What we need now is not words, but security guarantees <...> from countries
and unions of countries that are capable of providing them," he said. "We
don't want to wage any more wars."

Zelensky went on to say that Russian-Ukrainian negotiations continue.

"Groups of Ukrainian and Russian negotiators are discussing some matters," he
said, adding that his country informed other states about the ongoing talks.

"We have no secrets, we are absolutely frank about this agenda. We informed
certain leaders about the questions that are being discussed by the Russian
and the Ukrainian sides," Zelensky added.

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky claimed that all previously agreed
humanitarian corridors were functioning on Saturday, and 12,729 people used
them to flee violence-hit areas.

"All previously agreed corridors were functional. We managed to evacuate
12,729 people. Humanitarian cargo for Mariupol will be delivered tomorrow,"
he said in a video address, posted by the presidential office in its Telegram
channel.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian deputy prime minister for issues of reintegration on
uncontrolled territories, Irina Vereshchuk, said nine out of 14 humanitarian
corridors were operating in the reported period.

"Yesterday we managed to evacuate over 7,000 people, but today their number
is slightly less than 13,000," she said. "Of course, this is very, very
reassuring," she added.

The deputy premier went on to say that the possibility of opening
humanitarian corridors from the Lugansk and Kiev regions on Sunday was being
considered.

Colonel General Mikhail Mizintsev, chief of Russia's National Defense
Management Center, said on Saturday Russia suggested ten humanitarian
corridors for March 12 from Kiev, Chernigov, Sumy, Kharkov and Mariupol,
whereas Ukraine added one more, towards Zhitomir. "At the same time, not a
single humanitarian corridor to the Russian Federation has again been
confirmed by Kiev, which once again proves the current government's
indifference to their own people," the general said.

On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a special military
operation in response to a request for help by the heads of the Donbass
republics. He stressed that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian
territories, but aims to demilitarize and denazify the country. The Russian
Defense Ministry said that Russian troops are not targeting Ukrainian cities,
but are incapacitating Ukrainian military infrastructure, therefore there are
no threats to the civilian population.