NEW DELHI: With the Russian military closing in on capital Kyiv and President Vladimir Putin exhorting Ukraine‘s army to stage a coup, former Ukranian President Petro Poroshenko was seen on the streets of central Kyiv holding fort on Friday with a short Kalashnikov rifle.
“We just have 300 members of the battalion of the territorial defence here and two machine guns among other arms… we don’t have artilleries, tanks,” Poroshenko told CNN, adding the Russian military was barely “2-3 km away”.
With apprehensions doing rounds that Kyiv’s fall is a matter of days, Poroshenko rued that Ukraine didn’t have enough personnel “because we launched this process (enlisting citizens in the battalion) just a couple of days ago”, while showing a “long queue of people who want to get enlisted with the battalion”. “They are ordinary people, never been in the army, they are joining us to protect Ukraine… The Ukranians are standing in line not for bread or cash but for weapons, to give our blood,” the former president said, adding they don’t even have enough arms.
He, however, said this is extremely touching and great demonstration of how the Ukranian people “hate Putin, how we are against the Russian aggression”. “Putin declared war not just on Ukraine but the whole world… We will deal with Putin as a man with the lost reason. He is mad, crazy, evil to come here and kill Ukranians,” he said, adding Putin can not stop Ukraine from moving to European Union.
He also called on West for sanctions on Putin to make him weak. “Putin should feel himself in hell. We need SWIFT, which is symbol of our solidarity… we need to block Russian ships and planes. I call on the West to support Ukraine… this is how you can support democracy,” he said, also thanking the numerous people protesting against Putin, which he said “has not happened in many years”, besides the US and UK for the weapons.
When asked by CNN how long did he think they can hold out, a visibly emotional Poroshenko said, “Whatever… Putin can never catch Ukraine, no matter how many missiles, soldiers or nuclear weapons he has.”
“Ukranians are free people with a great European future,” he said.
“We just have 300 members of the battalion of the territorial defence here and two machine guns among other arms… we don’t have artilleries, tanks,” Poroshenko told CNN, adding the Russian military was barely “2-3 km away”.
With apprehensions doing rounds that Kyiv’s fall is a matter of days, Poroshenko rued that Ukraine didn’t have enough personnel “because we launched this process (enlisting citizens in the battalion) just a couple of days ago”, while showing a “long queue of people who want to get enlisted with the battalion”. “They are ordinary people, never been in the army, they are joining us to protect Ukraine… The Ukranians are standing in line not for bread or cash but for weapons, to give our blood,” the former president said, adding they don’t even have enough arms.
He, however, said this is extremely touching and great demonstration of how the Ukranian people “hate Putin, how we are against the Russian aggression”. “Putin declared war not just on Ukraine but the whole world… We will deal with Putin as a man with the lost reason. He is mad, crazy, evil to come here and kill Ukranians,” he said, adding Putin can not stop Ukraine from moving to European Union.
He also called on West for sanctions on Putin to make him weak. “Putin should feel himself in hell. We need SWIFT, which is symbol of our solidarity… we need to block Russian ships and planes. I call on the West to support Ukraine… this is how you can support democracy,” he said, also thanking the numerous people protesting against Putin, which he said “has not happened in many years”, besides the US and UK for the weapons.
When asked by CNN how long did he think they can hold out, a visibly emotional Poroshenko said, “Whatever… Putin can never catch Ukraine, no matter how many missiles, soldiers or nuclear weapons he has.”
“Ukranians are free people with a great European future,” he said.
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