“In the worst case we will die, but we will never surrender,” exclaimed the mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, on Tuesday before the Council of Europe as Russian troops tried to encircle his city.
Posted at 2:13 p.m.
“As mayor of Kyiv, I promise you one thing, the Russians will never enter Kyiv”, launched the former world boxing champion, during a videoconference with the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities. , assembly of the Council of Europe representing local elected representatives and sitting in Strasbourg.
“We fortified every building, every street, every corner of the city. We will fight to defend our city and our future. We will not kneel down,” he continued. “In the worst case we will die, but we will never surrender.”
The former boxer called on European states to support “economically, politically and militarily” Ukraine against Russia. “We need weapons, we are fighting one of the strongest armies on the planet,” he said.
On Tuesday, a drone attack on a building of the National Academy of Sciences in Kyiv killed at least one person, AFP noted. On Sunday, a Russian missile fell on a shopping center in the city, killing at least eight people. According to Moscow, the mall was “inoperative” and served as an arms depot.
The Ukrainian capital has been under a new curfew since Monday evening and until Wednesday morning, the third since the start of the war. Kyiv remains under threat from an offensive by the Russian army, which is camped in its northwestern and eastern suburbs.
Speaking at the same meeting, the Ukrainian Minister of Communities and Territories, Oleksiy Chernyshov, asked the “European companies” present in Russia to cease their activities in this country.
“Companies that continue to work in Russia today, that fill the coffers of the state, sponsor this barbarism,” he argued.
“These are your businesses. Every time a coin falls into the coffers of the Russian state, there are bombs that kill Ukrainian civilians,” he insisted.