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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told The Time how Russian forces approached his capture or assassination in the early hours of the Ukrainian occupation.
Praised for responding to the invasion in the 65 days since the first Russian troops entered Ukraine, his time as leader of a country under attack by a much more powerful neighbor could have ended within hours of the invasion, writes The Time.
Speaking to journalist Simon Shuster, who spent two weeks at the presidential complex in Kiev, Zelenskiy told how Russian troops approached finding him and his family as well. After the bombing started, he and his wife, Olena Zelenska, went to tell their 17-year-old daughter and nine-year-old son to prepare to leave their home.
The Ukrainian military told Zelenskiy that Russian attack teams had arrived by parachute in Kiev to kill or capture him and his family. Gun battles erupted around the government-held neighborhood. The guards inside the compound turned off the lights and brought bulletproof vests and weapons to Zelenskiy and about a dozen of his aides.
One of the few officers who knew how to use weapons was Oleksiy Arestovych, a veteran of Ukraine’s military intelligence service. “It was absolute madness,” Arestovych told Time. “Automation for everyone.”
Russian troops made two attempts to attack the compound while Zelenskiy’s family was still inside, according to Shuster. The next night, after rejecting offers for a safer environment – including an evacuation by US and British forces – Zelenskiy went out into the yard to record an already famous video message. At that moment Zelenskiy said that he became really aware of his role in the war. “You know they’re watching you,” he told the magazine. “You are a symbol. “You have to act as the head of state should.”
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