‘I’m not afraid’: Defiant Zelensky reveals his location in Kyiv and says ‘beast’ Putin will move on NATO members next if Ukraine falls and begs Biden to declare no-fly-zone despite risk of nuclear war
- Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, spoke to ABC News’s David Muir on Monday from the presidential offices in Kyiv
- The interview is the first time the president has publicly returned to the heart of government; since February 24 his location has been a closely-guarded secret
- Zelensky, 44, warned the West that Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine was just the beginning, saying: ‘The more this beast will eat, he wants more, more, and more’
- Asked by Muir what he wanted from Joe Biden, Zelensky said that Ukraine needed a no-fly zone enforcing in their skies to stop the Russian attacks
- He said he had ‘no doubt’ the ‘brave American soldiers’ would be willing to help – but dodged the question of whether it would drag the U.S. into nuclear war
- Asked whether Putin was a war criminal, Zelensky said that ‘all people who came to our land, all people who gave those orders, all soldiers who were shooting’ were guilty
- And he said that he hoped for ‘the end to be like in the Hollywood movies, the happy end for our country’
Ukraine’s president on Monday emerged from his bunker in Kyiv and returned to the presidential palace, declaring: ‘I am here, I am not hiding, and I am not afraid of anyone.’
Volodymyr Zelensky, 44, gave his Facebook audience a tour of the palace, joking: ‘We used to say Monday, Monday is a hard day. But it is war in our country, so every day is a hard day.’
He told the embattled country, on day 12 of the Russian invasion: ‘We are all in our places working, where we should be. My team is in Kyiv with me.
‘We are all fighting, we are all contributing to our victory which will surely happen.’
Zelensky, in an interview with ABC News, then warned the West that Russian leader Vladimir Putin was a ‘beast’ who would not stop at devouring only Ukraine.
Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, returned to the presidential palace on Monday
Describing Ukraine as a ‘zone of freedom,’ the former actor said: ‘And when the limits of rights and freedoms are being violated and stepped on, then you have to protect us.
‘We will come first. You will come second. Because the more this beast will eat, he wants more, more, and more.’
The president, who spoke to Joe Biden for 40 minutes on Saturday night, once again urged the U.S. to agree to enforce a no-fly zone above his country.
Such a move would see fighter jets from the United States and its NATO allies patrolling the air space above Ukraine, and shooting down any Russian jets that enter – effectively putting the West at war with Russia, in World War Three.
Zelensky, asked about concern widely expressed of the dramatic escalation, brushed off the fears and insisted it was the best way for the U.S. to help Ukraine.
‘I told him that for us, the most important thing today is the security in the sky,’ Zelensky said.
‘We cannot allow Russia to be active there only, because they’re bombing us, they are shelling us, they are bombing us, they are sending missiles, helicopters, jet fighters – a lot of things.
‘But we are not doing this because we don’t have the sky.
‘We don’t control our sky.’
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