Russia’s invasion has brought death and destruction to areas across Ukraine but slow progress in its military ground offensive.
As cities across the country struggled, Zelenskyy on Monday sought to boost morale. Showing he was at work in Kyiv rather than in hiding, he promised to rebuild the country while condemning Russian forces for targeting civilian infrastructure like bread factories and churches.
“It is like a nightmare for them,” he said. “They forgot that we are not afraid of police vans, of tanks, of machine guns when the most important thing is on our side — truth.”
Ukraine’s military said it had stalled the Russian advance in an update early Tuesday, but the country’s defense minister warned that Russian forces were preparing for a new wave of attacks on key cities, including Kyiv, Kharkiv, Chernihiv and Mykolayiv.
Russia has committed nearly all of the troops it had amassed around Ukraine, according to a senior U.S. defense official said.
But Russian President Vladimir Putin has shown no sign of pulling back in the face of fierce resistance, and its military might significantly overpowers Ukraine’s, a fact that Zelenskyy highlighted in an interview with ABC News that aired Monday night.
“The problem is that for one soldier of Ukraine, we have 10 Russian soldiers, and for one Ukrainian tank, we have 50 Russian tanks,” Zelenskyy said.
But he noted that the gap in strength was closing and that even if Russian forces “come into all our cities,” they will be met with an insurgency.
Zelenskyy, who has pressed the West to implement a no-fly zone above Ukraine and increase military supplies, is scheduled to address British lawmakers Tuesday, the first time a president of another country has addressed Parliament’s House of Commons.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
