The President of Ukraine on Friday stated that his country had been left on its own to fight Russia after the Kremlin launched a large-scale invasion that killed 130 Ukrainians on Thursday.
Speaking in a video on Friday morning in an address to the nation, President Volodymyr Zelensky said; ‘We have been left alone to defend our state.’
‘Who is ready to fight alongside us? I don’t see anyone. Who is ready to give Ukraine a guarantee of NATO membership? Everyone is afraid,’ he lamented.
Zelensky said that 137 Ukrainians, both military personnel and civilians, had been killed since the start of the attack early Thursday.
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He went on to reveal that another 316 had been wounded.
Zelensky also said that Russian ‘sabotage groups’ had entered the capital Kyiv, and urged the city’s citizens to remain vigilant and observe a curfew.
The president added that he and his family remained in Ukraine, despite Russia identifying him as ‘target number one’.
‘They want to destroy Ukraine politically by taking down the head of state,’ Zelensky lamented in his message.
Meanwhile, the Federal Government of Nigeria has stepped up plans to use a special flight operation to evacuate stranded Nigerians from Ukraine amid the escalating crisis in the the country.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs made this known in Abuja on Friday morning.
Africa Today News, New York had earlier reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin had announced a military operation in Ukraine on Thursday with explosions heard soon after across the country and its foreign minister warning a ‘full-scale invasion’ was underway.
Weeks of intense diplomacy and the imposition of Western sanctions on Russia failed to deter Putin, who had massed between 150,000 and 200,000 troops along the borders of Ukraine.
AFRICA TODAY NEWS, NEW YORK