Volodymyr Zelenskiy - The African Mirror

Oct

2022

Zelenskiy calls on West to warn Russia not to blow up dam

JONATHAN LANDAY UKRAINIAN President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called on the West to warn Russia not to blow up a huge dam that would flood a swath of southern Ukraine, as his forces prepare to push Moscow's troops from Kherson in one of the war's most important battles. In a television address, Zelenskiy said Russian forces had planted explosives inside the huge Nova Kakhovka dam, which holds back an enormous reservoir that dominates much of southern Ukraine, and were planning to blow it up. "Now everyone in the world must act powerfully and quickly to prevent a new Russian terrorist attack. Destroying the…

Jul

2022

By The African Mirror

Zelenskiy sidelines close allies in Kyiv’s biggest purge of war

WORLD

TOM BALMFORTH and MAX HUNDER PRESIDENT Volodymyr Zelenskiy sidelined his childhood friend as head of Ukraine's security service, and another close ally as top prosecutor, in Kyiv's biggest internal purge of the war, citing their failure to root out Russian spies. The careers of SBU security service chief Ivan Bakanov and Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova had personified Zelenskiy's policy of putting young loyalists in charge of fighting corruption since the former TV comic came to power in 2019. But nearly five months after Russia's invasion, the president acknowledged that his two allies had failed to root out traitors and collaborators…

Jul

2022

By The African Mirror

Ukraine apartment block toll rises as Zelenskiy laments Russian firepower advantage

WORLD

ANNA VOITENKO and TOM BALMFORTH RESCUE workers pulled some survivors from an apartment block destroyed by a Russian missile strike that killed 30 people in eastern Ukraine, while Russian shelling killed at least three in the second-largest city of Kharkiv. The civilian deaths hammered home the human cost of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, now in its fifth month, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy lamented Russia's "big advantage" in artillery despite Western offers of help. In the city of Chasiv Yar, rescuers made voice contact with two people in the wreckage of the five-storey apartment building demolished by a rocket on…

Apr

2022

By The African Mirror

As battle looms in Ukraine’s east, Austrian leader to meet Putin

WORLD

ELIZABETH PIPER and ZOHRA BENSEMRA RUSSIAN forces pounded targets in eastern Ukraine with missiles and artillery on Sunday as Austria's leader planned to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Washington pledged to give Ukraine "the weapons it needs" to defend itself against a new Russian offensive. Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer said he would meet with Putin on Monday in Moscow for the Russian leader's first face-to-face meeting with a European Union counterpart since Russia's invasion began on February 24. "We are militarily neutral, but (have) a clear position on the Russian war of aggression against #Ukraine," Nehammer wrote of…

Apr

2022

By The African Mirror

Ukraine faces ‘hard battle’ in eastern regions, Zelenskiy says

WORLD

ELIZABETH PIPER UKRAINE is ready for a tough battle with Russian forces amassing in the east of the country, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, a day after a missile attack in the east that officials said killed more than 50 civilians trying to evacuate. Air-raid sirens sounded in cities across eastern Ukraine, which has become the focus of Russian military action following a withdrawal from areas close to the capital, Kyiv. After Friday's strike on a train station crowded with women, children and the elderly in the Donetsk region city of Kramatorsk, officials urged civilians in the neighbouring Luhansk region to…

Apr

2022

By The African Mirror

Ukraine forces retake areas north of Kyiv as Russians look eastward

WORLD

JAMES MACKENZIE UKRAINIAN forces were advancing into areas north of Kyiv littered with debris and destroyed Russian tanks as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy accused departing Russian soldiers of leaving behind mines. Ukrainian presidential adviser Okeksiy Arestovych said Ukrainian troops had retaken more than 30 towns and villages in the region since Russia announced this week it would scale down operations around the capital to focus on battles in the east. British military intelligence said Russian troops had abandoned Hostomel airport in a northwestern suburb of the capital, where there had been fighting since the first day of the invasion. In…

Mar

2022

By The African Mirror

Ukraine’s Zelenskiy tells EU: ‘Prove that you are with us’

WORLD

PHILIP BLENKINSOP and INGRID MELANDER "PROVE that you are with us," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told the European Union, a day after Kyiv officially asked to join the bloc as it battles invading Russian forces. EU lawmakers, many wearing #standwithUkraine T-shirts bearing the Ukrainian flag, others with blue-and-yellow scarves or ribbons, gave Zelenskiy a standing ovation as he addressed the European Parliament via video link. "We are fighting to be equal members of Europe," Zelenskiy said in Ukrainian in a speech translated into English by an interpreter who spoke through tears. "Do prove that you are with us. Do prove…