Government understands the mood of the Ukrainian society: if it goes to some kind of surrender of interests, it will very quickly cease to be a government - poet Serhiy Zhadan

"Any compromises with Russia will mean our political death, followed by physical death. These are the orcs who came to destroy us, they don't need us in any format", he said on Espreso TV.

Zhadan noted: "Since 1991, there has been a lot of Russia in Ukraine, which is quite understandable, given our previous history. The inevitable point in the minds of many occurred in the spring of 2014, when the Russian invasion began, when the Russians came to Crimea and Donbas. And real independence happened just then. Therefore, now the question is: either we stand and remain ourselves, or we simply cease to exist".

He also added: “I walk around the city, I talk a lot with young people and I see how many of them are starting to speak Ukrainian today. This is not some kind of tribute to fashion, or a tribute to some moment. For them, this is something important, and this is some kind of marker that distinguishes them and by which they identify themselves".