President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said that Ukraine is ready for any format of exchanging its civilians and servicemen blocked by Russia in Mariupol for Russians.

"We are ready for various formats of exchanging our people [in Mariupol] for Russian people, the Russian military, whom they [Russia] left behind. And they left the corpses, and they threw the wounded people. Therefore, we are ready for the sake of our people, as military and civilians for any exchange format," Zelensky said at a briefing with the President of the European Council in Kyiv.

Answering a question about the situation in Mariupol, the head of state said that it was getting worse.

"Unfortunately, so far we cannot achieve a positive result there. Our soldiers have hundreds of wounded people in their hands. Protecting civilians with their backs, they die. There are about a thousand behind our soldiers in Mariupol, as far as I know, but I do not know for sure how many civilians are alive at this time," he said.

According to Zelensky, he would like to say now that everything will be simple and tomorrow the military and political leadership will help the Ukrainian defenders and civilians of Mariupol, but this cannot be said yet.

"I do not know when we will be able to unblock Mariupol. All our servicemen in Mariupol want our victory, unblocking the city. They are not going to surrender to the enemy," the president said.

He also said there are two ways to unblock Mariupol, Western help with weapons or a diplomatic way.

"The first is serious assistance with weapons, which we are counting on. And they [the defenders of Mariupol] are counting. The second way is diplomatic. So far, Russia does not agree to this, no matter what public signals it comes out and says that ready," he said.