The Russian president recorded a televised appeal to the Ukrainian military on Friday. Speaking with barely constrained fury, Putin urged the Ukrainian soldiers his forces are trying to kill to seize power from their civilian leaders.
Putin's rhetoric about a government led by a Jewish president, Volodymyr Zelensky, who was elected in a landslide in 2019, is plainly delusional, but it was echoed that night on the state television channels that give him a stranglehold over Russia.
Pure war propaganda on Russian state TV news tonight:
"The banderites and neonazis are using terrorist methods, deploying heavy weaponry including multiple rocket launchers in major Ukrainian cities to have a pretext to accuse Russia of causing civilian casualties" pic.twitter.com/wWPD7wZJQc
— Francis Scarr (@francska1) February 25, 2022
Zelensky, a former comedian who played an unlikely president in a hit television series before becoming one in real life, responded to Putin's address with a defiant video selfie posted on Telegram. The brief message was viewed more than 4 million times on Telegram and went viral on social media.
Zelensky spoke calmly into his phone while standing outside the president's office on Bankova Street, flanked by his closest advisers.
Good evening everyone. Zelensky showed a picture of the leader of the party and the head of the office.
Zelensky brought the phone back to himself and said that the president was there.
We are all here. Our soldiers are here. Zelensky said that the citizens of the country are here. Our defenders, you have deserved glory. Our heroes have been praised. Glory to the people of Ukraine.
Zelensky's decision to broadcast his location was remarkable, given that he revealed earlier this week that he was the main target of the Russian forces.
Zelensky has turned to social media in an attempt to speak directly to the Russian people, with the full knowledge that his calm, determined statements condemning Putin's war will never be shown in full.
Zelensky recorded a nine-minute address to the Russian people, in Russian, to debunk the lies that he was leading a neo-Nazi regime intent on attacking Russian speakers in eastern Ukraine.
Zelensky said in the video posted on the presidency that the Ukraine on your news and the Ukraine in real life are completely different countries. The battle against Nazism claimed the lives of more than 8 million people.
Zelensky knew that his Jewishness is a secret in a part of the world where antisemitism is still rife.
More than a thousand Russians were arrested on Thursday for attending banned street protests against the war.
Zelensky thanked the Ukrainian diplomats for their courage and said that he would see them. You heard us. You will begin to trust us. Fight for us. Fight against the war.
Zelensky has grown into the role, according to the Moscow bureau chief of the Financial Times. Zelensky started playing the president on TV again when the war became inevitable.
The president of the Ukranian said that an assault on the city could be imminent. He told the nation that the morning would come. Russian subtitles were used for the video of his remarks in Ukrainian.
Zelensky warns Russia will storm Kyiv tonight in “vile, cruel and inhuman” fashion.
“We have to persevere tonight. The fate of Ukraine is being decided right now. The night will be hard, very hard, but there will be a morning, pic.twitter.com/8bioVWKDaA
— max seddon (@maxseddon) February 25, 2022
Zelensky posted a new video update from the street outside his office early Saturday morning after reports that he had turned down a U.S. offer to leave the city. Zelensky urged the public not to believe what he said was a lot of fake information online that he ordered the army to lay down its arms.
Zelensky said that they were not laying down any arms. Our truth is our weapon. The truth is that this is our land, our country and our children and we are going to defend it.
Within an hour of being posted on the president's social media accounts, the new video message had been viewed more than 8 million times.
Updated: February 26, 2022
This article was revised to report the new video message posted online by President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine on Saturday morning in Kyiv.
Correction: February 26, 2022
This article was revised to explain that the messaging app Telegram, which was created by the Russian tech entrepreneur Pavel Durov, is not based in Russia.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
