Kiev: In his latest address to the nation, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that he’s still in Kiev and not hiding as Russia’s war on his country has continued for the 13th day.
In the video posted on his Facebook page late Monday night, Zelensky shows the views of the city from his office in the heart of the capital city.
“I stay in Kiev. On Bankova Street. I’m not hiding. And I’m not afraid of anyone. As much as it takes to win this Patriotic War of ours,” the President added.
Zelenksy’s video message came hours after the third round of peace talks between Ukrainian and Russian delegations ended without any significant developments.
The talks lasted for nearly three hours at the Belovezhskaya Pushcha on the Belarus-Poland border, reports Xinhua news agency.
According to Russian presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, who also heads Moscow’s delegation, said although discussions continued on political and military aspects, it however remained difficult and was too early to talk about something positive.
He added that the Russian side “brought a large set of documents, including specific agreements, but the Ukrainian side could not sign them on the spot and took all these documents back home for study”.
Medinsky added that the two sides addressed the issue of civilian evacuation.
As the military invasion continued for the 13th day on Tuesday, Russian attacks have prevented civilians to evacuate from cities currently under fire.
In the port city of Odessa, where Russian troops are quickly gaining ground, explosions were heard in the early hours of Tuesday, reports the BBC.
Deemed a key strategic target for Moscow, Ukrainian forces in Odessa claimed to have hit one of the Russian fleet causing significant damage.
Daily curfews begin at 7 p.m. in the city, and air raid sirens were heard for more than an hour on Monday, with warnings that Russian ships were repositions themselves in preparation for an attack, said the BBC.
As a result of Russia’s invasion that began on February 24, currently there are more than 742,000 people across Ukraine without access to electricity, according to the Foreign Ministry in Kiev.
The Ministry said on Monday that the Russia-backed Donetsk region in the east is the hardest hit, where over 233,000 are “completely disconnected”.
Some 238,000 Ukrainians are also without gas, it added.
The Ministry further claimed that “active hostilities have caused new power grid damage and outages”.
(IANS)
