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Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko has a defiant message for Russian troops nearing Ukraine’s capital city in theirongoing invasion.
“We’re ready to fight,“he said Sunday, in a message projecting confidence in the resistance against the powerful Russian force. “We defend our city.”
Klitschko, a former professional boxer who has been the mayor Kyiv since 2014, said residents are part of, in his words, “huge patriotic waves” of people who were preparing if necessary to fend off Russian troops, reportedly only 15 miles from the city’s center.
The newly armed citizens were “people who never, ever expect to take weapons in hand to defend houses, children and our future — future of our country,” Klitschko, 50, said in an interview alongside his brother, Wladimir Klitschko,with CNN’s Dana Bash on Sunday.
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Wladimir, 45, is also aformer boxer and enlisted in Ukraine’s reserve armyahead of the Russian invasion, which began Feb. 24.
“The whole country is highly motivated to stop Russian aggression and the war,” Wladimir told Bash in the joint interview. “We all stand together and we’re highly motivated to defend our country because this is our home. That’s where our children were going to school. That’s where our relatives [are] buried in the ground. This is our home and there’s no other way that we’re going to leave and why? Because this is our home. So we will defend the country until last drop of the blood.”
“Yes, of course,” he said. “Right now, it’s every Ukrainian is target.”
“It’s a war against the whole population, against every Ukrainian,” he added. “I don’t worry about me, myself. I’m ready to fight and ready to defend the interests of citizens.”
In aninterview with France 24, Mayor Klitschko said Russians were “trying to make a circle around Kyiv” and hope to destroy the city. “But our soldiers, Ukrainian soldiers, destroyed the plans of Russians and we are very proud to have very tough soldiers who defend our houses, our city and our country.”
Kyiv, Ukraine, Mayor Vitali Klitschko.GENYA SAVILOV/AFP via Getty
“No panic,” he said of the mood in his city, but “people are very nervous.”
“The key which can stop this war is the unity of all. We have to make pressure, political pressure, sanction pressure and, please, weapons delivering to Ukraine,“Klitschko said.
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He said the fight was not Ukraine’s alone but rather an effort to defend the ideals of its allies.
“We’re fighting for exactly the same values, for same principles,” he said. “This war can touch anyone, everyone, everyone in the European Union, in Europe, and can touch everyone in the world.”
Wrapping up the interview, the mayor’s younger brother added, “Please continue supporting us. It’s very important for the peace in Europe and in Ukraine.”
Russia’sattack on Ukrainecontinues after their forces launched a large-scale invasion last month — the first major land conflict in Europe in decades.
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With NATO forces massing in the region around Ukraine, various countries have also pledged aid or military support to the resistance. Ukraine PresidentVolodymyr Zelenskyycalled for peace talks — so far unsuccessful — while urging his country to fight back.
Putin insists Ukraine has historic ties to Russia and he is acting in the best security interests of his country. Zelenskyy vowed not to bend.
“Nobody is going to break us, we’re strong, we’re Ukrainians,“he told the European Unionin a speech in the early days of the fighting, adding, “Life will win over death. And light will win over darkness.”
source: people.com
