Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urges Russia to negotiate

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says that Russia needs to move quickly to negotiate an agreement to end the war.

Speaking on a visit on Monday to the town of Bucha outside Kyiv, where hundreds of civilians were found dead after Russian troops' retreat last week, Zelenskyy said the evidence of atrocities makes it hard to conduct talks with Russia.

It's very difficult to conduct negotiations when you see what they did here, Zelenskyy said, adding that in Bucha and other places dead people have been found in barrels, basements, strangled, tortured.

He added that the Russian leadership needs to think faster if it has what to think with.

Zelenskyy added that the longer the Russian Federation drags it out, the worse it will exacerbate its own situation and this war.

Zelenskyy reaffirmed his criticism of former German Chancellor Angela Merkel's opposition to Ukraine's bid to join NATO, saying that she and other Western leaders who resisted the move should come to Bucha to see what the flirting with the Russian Federation leads to.