Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, has said that he will stay in Kyiv as his troops fight the Russian military that is moving toward the city. This is the biggest attack on a European country since World War II.
Despite what Russian “enemy sabotage groups” have done to the country’s capital, Zelenskyy says he will stay in the country. He says that he and his family have been named the country’s No. 1 and No. 2 targets.
Asked if he thought Russia was a threat, he said: “Yes, I think so.”
On Thursday, President Vladimir Putin said that Russia was going to fight. Russia invaded on land, air, and sea, and it did so after Putin said that. Around 100,000 people fled as explosions and gunfire rocked major cities across the United States. It was the first day of the attack, and 137 people died.
There are people in the United States and in Ukraine who say that Russia wants to take control of Kyiv and overthrow the government, which Putin thinks is a US puppet. There used to be a nuclear power plant in Chernobyl, about 90 km (56 miles) north of the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. Russian troops took it over as they made their way from Belarus to Kyiv.
When Zelenskyy sent out a video message on Friday, he said that the enemy had chosen him to be their number one target. There was a lot of heavy fighting on several fronts at the time. “My family is number two.” Because Ukraine is politically important to them, they want to destroy it by killing the head of state.
“I’m going to stay in the capital.” My family is also there.
Putin says that Russia is taking part in “a special military operation” to stop the Ukrainian government from killing its own people, which the West says is untrue. Also, he says Ukraine is not a legitimate country because its land has been part of Russia for a long time and is not its own.
On CBS, US Secretary of State Antonio Blinken said: “To the best of my knowledge, President Zelenskyy is still in Ukraine at his post. Of course, we are concerned for the well-being of all of our friends in Ukraine, including government officials and other people.”