Zelenskyy explicitly gave the defenders of Mariupol permission to leave the city - they chose to stay and fight

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that he expressly allowed the military to leave Mariupol, but they chose to stay behind.

Source: Zelenskyy's interview with the Russian press.

Direct Quote: "I spoke with those boys (the defenders of Mariupol)... I told them ‘I understand, boys, we will return for you. But if you feel like you need to leave, if you think it is the correct course of action and that you will be able to survive, do so. I understand how it must look for the military - but still. Do it.’

I gave them this choice. They replied ‘We can't (leave the city). There are injured people here. We can't abandon the wounded’. What’s more, they told me ‘We won't abandon those killed either.’

Just so you understand - in that city corpses are lying on the streets, on the pavements. They are just lying there - no one is picking them up - Russian soldiers, Ukrainian citizens, everyone… And our soldiers are not willing to leave behind even the corpses of dead soldiers. To just dig a hole somewhere and bury them like trash - they are not willing to do that. Not just the officers- all of them. This is why they are defending the city - defending the wounded, defending the dead they wish to bury."

Details: Zelenskyy also said that Russia has forcefully taken more than 2000 children out of Mariupol, some of them without their parents.

"According to our sources, more than two thousand children were taken out of the city, and more accurately - stolen, because we don't know their location at the moment. Some of them were taken with their parents - some of them without. This is just a disaster. I can't even begin to tell you what it looks like. It is terrifying. They are keeping these souls like a currency for some twisted exchange fund," said the president.