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As Russian troops closed in on Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, on Friday night, courageous Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, displayed his mettle and called on Ukrainians to “burn down enemy’s tanks and armor with whatever means”.
Zelenskyy, in his latest televised address, called on Ukrainians to “stand firm this night. The fate of Ukraine is at stake right now. Everyone capable of defending, please help our military. Burn down enemy’s tanks and armor with whatever means. The night ahead will be hard, very tough but there will be dawn after it.”
The Ukrainian President was surrounded by his advisers and wearing combat fatigues.
Ukrainian and Russian government officials are working to arrange possible negotiations to end the fighting.
Ukrainian and Russian government officials are working to arrange possible negotiations to end the fighting
Although thousands of refugees continued to flee the country, several Ukrainian officials vowed to remain in Kyiv and fight against the aggression.
According to a spokesman for Zelenskyy, Ukrainian and Russian government officials are working to arrange possible negotiations to end the fighting.
Zelenskyy warned during the televised address that he believed Russian troops would storm the capital overnight.
“The night will be more difficult than the day,” he said, as the sound of shelling and loud booms from airstrikes could be heard over Kyiv. We cannot lose Kyiv,” he said.
The mayor of Kyiv and a legendary boxer, Vitali Klitschko, also said he will stand and fight for his city alongside his brother Wladimir, also a former heavyweight champion boxer.
“I don’t have another choice,” Vitali said.
“Words are followed by missiles and tanks. Destruction and death come upon us. We will defend ourselves with all our might and fight for freedom and democracy,” Wladimir wrote on Linkedin Thursday.
Several members of Ukraine’s parliament said they were remaining in the city and prepared to defend themselves as Russia’s military continued its attack.
Leader of the political party Holos, Kira Rudik, maintained on Friday that “I’m at the center of Kyiv and I will remain here. I’m a member of parliament and the leader of the party. It is my duty to be here.”
Rudik said she hid in a bomb shelter multiple times since the Russian military launched its attack on Ukraine Thursday morning.
“There is lots of stress and it is not really helping the morale of the people, being under the airstrikes all the time,” she said.
Putin will never catch Ukraine, no matter how many soldiers he has, how many missiles he has, how many nuclear weapons he has
Rudik said she was prepared to “bear arms,” and that she and members of her “crew” had received Kalashnikov assault rifles “so we will be able to resist if Russian forces will come to Kyiv.”
Parliament member, Sviatoslav Yurash, noted that he was “looking at my AK-47 in front of me” as Russian troops closed in on Kyiv.
In his words: “We are giving anyone who wants to help Ukraine fight an AK-47, so they can have a chance to do that. We are arming people who will be taking that fight to the Russians in every way.”
Yurash said the nation of some 40 million people is “not going to just stand idly by,” even as it faces a more powerful military.
“We will fight with everything we have and all the support that the world can provide us,” he said.
Ukraine’s former President, Petro Poroshenko, was seen with a Kalashnikov in hand.
He said they didn’t have any heavy artillery, tanks or enough arms for the “long line of people” volunteering to join Ukraine’s civilian territorial defense battalion, but he believed that they could hold out against the Russian aggression “forever.”
“I think that Russian President Vladimir Putin, never will catch Ukraine, no matter how many soldiers he has, how many missiles he has, how many nuclear weapons he has. We Ukrainian are a free people with a great European future,” Poroshenko said.
The businessman served as president of Ukraine from 2014 to 2019, when he was defeated by Zelenskyy.
Poroshenko returned to Kyiv from Poland last month amid escalating tensions with Russia to face allegations of high treason, which he has denied.
“I will return to Ukraine to fight for Ukraine,” he stated last month.
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