Ukraine president Zelensky says forces repelling Russian attacks

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says his country’s armed forces are successfully fighting back against Russian troops.

Zelensky says in a video Saturday that Russian attempts to advance into Kyiv have been repelled and Moscow’s plan to quickly seize the capital and install a puppet government has been thwarted.

“We’ve derailed their plan,” the 44-year-old leader said in a new video address, stressing that the Ukrainian army was in control of the capital Kyiv and main cities around it.

In an emotional speech, he accused the Russian forces of hitting civilian areas and infrastructure.

Zelensky pushed for Ukraine’s urgent ascension to the European Union, saying he discussed the issue with the EU leaders. He also urged cutting Russia from the SWIFT international electronic bank payment system, noting that Germany and Hungary should show “courage” and agree to the move.

Zelensky: ‘We successfully fought off enemy attacks. We are defending our country, our land, future of our children. Kyiv & key places near the capital are under our control. The occupiers wanted to capture our capital and install their puppets like Donetsk. We broke their idea.’ pic.twitter.com/3PtnzXmPoy

— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) February 26, 2022

Briefly switching to Russian, Zelensky hailed Russia’s cultural figures who denounced the invasion and urged them to redouble efforts to force the Kremlin to halt the attack.

He claimed that thousands of Russian troops were killed and hundreds of those who were taken prisoner “can’t understand why they were sent into Ukraine to kill and get killed.”

“The sooner you say to your government that this war should be immediately stopped, the more of your people will stay alive,” he said.

He asked Russians who spoke out against the war to keep up the pressure on the Kremlin, saying: “Simply stop those who are lying to you, lying to us, lying to the entire world.”