Russian hit squads came within minutes of killing Volodymyr Zelensky and his family during the early days of the war in Ukraine, the president has revealed as he spoke in detail for the first time about what it was like living through the dark and surreal hours after Putin gave the order to invade.
Zelensky, 44, said kill teams of Russian special forces were parachuted into Kyiv on the day of the invasion with orders to assassinate or capture him and his family. That evening they made two attempts to storm the presidential compound while he was still holed up inside with his wife and two children – 17 and nine.
Caught by surprise despite weeks of warnings from Washington that Russia was planning a full-scale war, Zelensky and his guards were forced to bodge together a defence: Blocking doors and windows with whatever they could find while handing automatic weapons and body armour to anyone who could carry them, including civilian aides.
In the event, Zelensky survived the assassinations and produced the first of what would become a series of defiant and inspiring videos that helped to rally a nation in shock and drawn in support from overseas. Mere hours after the Russian attacks and with gunfights still raging in Kyiv, the president went on camera with his advisers.
‘We’re all here. Our military is here. Citizens in society are here. We’re all here defending our independence, our country, and it will stay this way,’ Zelensky said.
He also ignored pleas from advisers and guards to flee the presidential palace for a secure bunker nearby, and flat-out rejected UK and US offers to evacuate him to eastern Poland where he could run a government-in-exile. On a call with the Americans, he delivered a line that would become a rally cry: ‘I need ammunition, not a ride.’
Speaking to Time magazine about that first night battling the Russians in the centre of Kyiv, presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych – who predicted three years ago that Russian would launch a ‘massive’ war on Ukraine if it tried to join NATO – described it as ‘an absolute madhouse. Automatic [weapons] for everyone.’
Ruslan Stefanchuk, speaker of parliament and another of Zelensky’s close advisers, described the sense of disbelief felt by those who had not believed Russian would launch such an attack. Speaking of the moment he first saw Zelensky on the day of the invasion, he said: ‘It wasn’t fear on his face. It was a question: How could this be?
‘Maybe these words sound vague or pompous, but we sensed the order of the world collapsing.’
Asked why he decided not to flee and instead to make a stand, Zelensky told Time that he knew that his people and the world were waiting to see how he would react – which would in turn influence how they reacted. ‘You understand that they’re watching. You’re a symbol. You need to act the way the head of state must act.’
Zelensky revealed that he had been rattled by the number of government officials and even military officers who fled in the early days of the fighting. Rather than threaten them, he felt it was important to inspire them to return to their posts after ensuring their families were safe. Most of them did, he said.
Now more than two months into the conflict, Ukraine endured those first fitful days when it seemed the sheer size of the Russian force assembled on the borders would surely overwhelm its defences and has written itself into history as one of the ultimate underdog stories – a modern-day David against Goliath.
Kyiv is now secure after Ukraine mauled Russia’s invasion forces and pushed them back across the border, although not entirely safe as Putin proved yesterday by launching five cruise missiles into the heart of the city as UN chief Antonio Guterres was visiting.
But the war is far from won. Battle is now raging hundreds of miles to the east as Putin’s men fight for control over the Donbas region, which the Russian despot now cynically claims was his real target all along.
Ukraine’s commanders say fighting is taking place along a stretch of frontline hundreds of miles long, snaking its way from the city of Izyum in Luhansk province – where the bulk of Russia’s force is massed – to areas just west of Donetsk, which is further to the south.
Ukrainian marines and members of the Azov battalion are still holed up in the siege fortress of Mariupol, inside the sprawling Azovstal steel works in the heart of the city which Russia is still trying to take – despite Putin’s claims that his men had been ordered not to storm it in order to preserve lives.
Further to the west, in the occupied city of Kherson, the world is being given a glimpse of what life in Ukraine might have been like if Putin had achieved his aim of seizing Kyiv and toppling the government.
-Daily Mail