Defiant President Zelensky Vows to Fight the Russians to the End

Russian forces are slowly moving through Ukraine’s capital city, Kyiv, in heavy street fighting, making the capture of the city grimly inevitable.

But rather than take the traditional route of joining national leaders in exile, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, and his top advisors have decided to remain in Kyiv — to the last.

Ukrainians appear united in the decision that they aren’t going down to defeat without giving Vladimir Putin a fight to remember.

Julia, a teacher and Ukrainian volunteer, weeps as she waits to be deployed to fight Russian troops around Kyiv on Saturday. Ukrainian civilians have taken up arms and joined the battle to keep control of the capital. https://t.co/dstRTHIW8F pic.twitter.com/Icvw3wb43m

— The New York Times (@nytimes) February 26, 2022

The government handed out 70,000 automatic weapons and has been broadcasting instructions on how to make Molotov cocktails.

In the early hours of Saturday in Europe, it was believed that Zelensky had either been killed or taken prisoner. But then a video emerged of him speaking to the nation.

“We are here,” he said in a recorded video on Friday night, standing in front of the presidency building flanked by his top advisers. “We are in Kyiv. We are protecting Ukraine.”

Indeed, the former actor and comic is sounding every inch a wartime leader.

“When you attack us, you will see our faces, not our backs,” he said.

New York Times:

The embattled leader, 44, who said on Thursday that his country’s intelligence services believe that he is Russia’s “number one target,” and his family the second, said he would not back down.

“Our army is here, our civil society is here, we are all here,” he said in the video, holding the camera himself and wearing military green. “We are defending our independence, our state, and we will continue to do so.”

In a formal address on Saturday, Zelensky once again offered proof that he was still alive and praised his military.

As Russian troops lay siege to Kyiv, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine appeared on camera on Saturday to offer proof of his continued presence in his country’s capital, praise his outgunned and outmanned military and request international support. https://t.co/ZWxbd7NrFh pic.twitter.com/30yTHUnApM

— The New York Times (@nytimes) February 26, 2022

The Ukrainian resistance has been so effective that the Pentagon is saying the Russian offensive to take Kyiv has stalled, according to New York Times updates:

Ukraine’s defense forces, outmanned and outgunned, waged a ferocious resistance to the Russian invasion on Saturday, battling to keep control of the capital, Kyiv, and other cities. So far, it seems their efforts have been effective. There was intense street fighting, and bursts of gunfire and explosions could be heard across Kyiv on Saturday, while the latest Western intelligence information said the Russian advance had been stalled.

• By Saturday afternoon, the speed of Russia’s advance in Ukraine had slowed, likely because of logistical difficulties and “strong Ukrainian resistance,” Britain’s Ministry of Defense said in a statement based on intelligence updates. Most of the more than 150,000 Russian forces that had massed around Ukraine are now fighting in the country, but those troops are “increasingly frustrated by their lack of momentum” as they face stiff Ukrainian resistance, a Pentagon official said.