As Russian forces reportedly make their way to the Ukrainian capital city of Kyiv, President Volodymyr Zelensky has released a video with top Ukrainian officials vowing to stay in the city, despite previously saying he was Russia’s “number-one target.”
The footage was released Friday and shows Zelensky with officials behind him dressed in military fatigues, and appears to have been filmed in Kyiv’s government district in front of the presidential administration building.
“All of us are here,” Zelensky says in the video, apparently addressing rumours spreading in Russian media that he has left the country. “Our military is here, our civil servants are here defending our independence and our state and we mean to keep it that way.”
Pointing at the men assembled behind him in the video, the Ukrainian president said the prime minister, party leader and the head of the president’s administration had all remained behind in the city.
“Glory to our allies,” Zelensky says. “Glory to Ukraine.”
The fighting has been intense in certain locations within Ukraine, with gunfire breaking out on a bridge across the Dneiper River that divides eastern and western Kyiv.
Approximately 200 Ukrainian soldiers were stationed there Friday, as another bridge leading to the capital was blown up to avoid the Russian troops using it to move deeper into the country.
It is difficult to pinpoint where the bulk of Russian forces are congregated and how much of Ukraine is still held by the government through the fog of war, but the British defence ministry said the Russian forces advancing on Kyiv were still more than 50 kilometres from the city centre, with clashes recorded in the north suburbs.
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with a file from the Associated Press
