“We must be aware that disgusting Russian provocations and brutal strikes are possible,” Zelenskyy said in a video address.
He has led his country’s resistance since Russian troops poured over the border in what Moscow calls a “special military operation” to demilitarise its smaller neighbour. Ukraine and its Western allies accuse Russian President Vladimir Putin of an unprovoked, imperial-style war.
Authorities urged people to take air raid warnings seriously and seek shelter when sirens sound.
“We are fighting against the most terrible threat to our statehood and also at a time when we have achieved the greatest level of national unity,” Zelenskyy said in his speech.
The Kyiv city administration banned large public gatherings until Thursday, fearing that a crowd of celebrating residents could become a target for a Russian missile strike.
“They will receive a response, a powerful response,” Zelenskyy told a news conference on Tuesday.
SOLIDARITY
Allies of Ukraine, including the United States – which has sent US$10.6 billion in security assistance and plans to send US$3 billion more to coincide with Independence Day – were also concerned about Russian attacks.
The United States said it believed Russia would target civilian and government infrastructure in coming days. US citizens should leave Ukraine “now”, the US Embassy said.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in a virtual conference on Tuesday to express solidarity with the Kyiv government, said, “No country should be able to redraw another’s borders by force.”
“We must keep raising the costs and international pressure on President Putin and his enablers until the rights of the Ukrainian people and their sovereign country are respected,” Blinken said in remarks to the so-called Crimea Platform.
Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and has been using it as a base for attacks during the invasion.
Zelenskyy addressed the conference and told reporters later: “We will take back Crimea – it is our territory. We will do this in any way which we decide.”
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