Russia wants to prove with its aggression that it "allegedly possesses not just territory, but life as such, and that it can decide for everyone whether they will have a life at all. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said this on Monday, speaking at a conference on the reconstruction of the country in Lugano.

According to him, "Russia is destroying the expanse of everything that matters to us and to any free human life."

"In four months of full-scale invasion in Ukraine, 2,102 educational facilities have been destroyed. These are schools, universities , kindergartens ... When the Russian army uses artillery against a kindergarten or drops bombs on a school, it is not just destroying walls, not just buildings. This is the deliberate destruction of the educational space in which children are socialized, in which people learn to be people," he said.

"Why is Russia shelling hospitals?" - asked the president, answering, "This is a manifestation of Russia, which is supposedly capable of destroying the very possibility of civilization for Ukraine - the basic humanity that every normal country has. Russia is showing that even to heal, even to bear children, Ukrainians will not be able to do so."

According to him, "this is all a conscious tactic of Russia, not just shelling, but betting just in ideological confrontation. The terrorist state hopes that such destruction will prove the alleged failure of the democratic system and the European choice of our people to give people not only a normal life, but a life in general.

He attributed the destruction of residential buildings to the occupiers' desire to "destroy all this space of life - to kill in people the feeling of home."

"More than 12 million Ukrainians were forced to become displaced because of the war. And how many of them will still return home, even if they will, where to return exactly where they used to live? After such a brutal war and such barbaric Russian strikes, it will be very difficult for many people to find that feeling again - the feeling of a real home," Zelensky said.

"Russia's desire for such ruins and such losses is supposedly a 'vision' of democracy and Europe. With this aggression, Russia wants to prove that, ostensibly, it has power not just over territory, but over life as such, and that, ostensibly, it can decide for everyone whether they will have life at all," he said.

"So this war is not just our war, not just a local war somewhere in eastern Europe. It is Russia's attack on everything that is of value to you and me. Therefore, the reconstruction of Ukraine is also not a local project, not a project of one people, but a common task of the entire democratic world. of all countries that can say of themselves - we are civilized," the president said.