Russian President Vladimir Putin is lying with his claims that the besieged city of Mariupol has been taken, a Ukraine Parliament member, Alexey Goncharenko, said on Newsmax Thursday.
"The situation is extremely tough and definitely the problem is great," Goncharenko told Newsmax's "National Report." "We have a really big concern about what their destiny will be next."
However, he pointed out that Ukrainian forces are still holding on at the massive Azovstal steel plant, which is part of Mariupol, "so when Putin today said Mariupol was taken, it's not true. He's lying."
The soldiers there, though, remain in an "extremely dangerous situation," as do the estimated 1,000 civilians, including children, who are also hiding at Azovstal, said Goncharenko.
"What Ukraine is asking, for the last time, is organized humanitarian corridors to give them a possibility to leave, to leave this very dangerous place, and to go to safety," he continued.
However, just four buses were able to leave Mariupol on Wednesday, and civilians are unable to reach the humanitarian corridors to escape, said Goncharenko.
Soldiers have also agreed to leave the city while maintaining their weapons and not surrendering, but Russia has rejected that idea, leaving "people still there is a very dangerous situation," he added.
Russia tested a new intercontinental ballistic missile this week, and while Putin has called it the world's best, Goncharenko said he would not believe him.
"He was saying that they have the absolute best army but you see that the Ukrainian army won the battle for Kyiv," he said. "We sent down their flagship in the Black Sea … the Russian Army is not so strong as Putin tries to show."
What is dangerous, however, is that Putin has nuclear weapons, said Goncharenko.
Meanwhile, the Biden administration hasn't answered calls to reopen the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, but other embassies are returning, said Goncharenko.
"Definitely we're waiting for the American Embassy to come back and also we're waiting for President Biden himself to visit here," he said. "He should be here now because that is the place where the destiny of the world will be decided, and certainly we want to see the American Embassy working."
Biden on Thursday announced another $800 million in military aid for Ukraine, and Goncharenko said Ukraine is grateful for it, but it also knows the United States can do more.
He added that if the aid and weapons had come two months ago, "maybe this awful tragedy of Mariupol would not have happened."
"It is a good idea to give Ukraine as many weapons as possible," he said. "Like [Winston] Churchill said, 'Give us the tools and we will finish the work.'"
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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