Kyiv — Ukraine‘s top diplomat said Saturday morning that his country’s capital had “survived another night” under Russian assault, as the president released a video reassuring his nation that he was still there. CBS News’ Haley Ott said President Volodymyr Zelensky’s message — shot outdoors on a cell phone, clearly in the capital of Kyiv — was a clear rebuttal to rumors that he might evacuate and reports that the United States had advised him to flee.
“There is lots of fake information in the internet that I called the army to give up and there’s an evacuation ongoing,” Zelensky told his nation. “I’m here, and I will not give up. We will still defend our country. Our weapon is the truth, and the truth is that we will defend our country, our land, our children. And we all will defend all of this. That’s all I want to say to you. Glory to Ukraine.”
Russia’s assault on Ukraine intensified overnight. President Vladimir Putin’s military launched coordinated artillery and missile attacks, taking aim at key sites in Kyiv and other cities in an invasion the Russian leader claims he ordered to “liberate” the neighboring country from a “neo-Nazi” regime.
His assault has drawn broad international condemnation and a dramatic show of unity from the West, with significant economic sanctions, a flood of money and military aid for Kyiv, and a bolstering of NATO’s own military forces in Eastern Europe.
But street fighting broke out in Kyiv overnight as Russian forces moved closer to capturing the capital — part of an effort, the U.S. and Ukraine believe, to overthrow Zelensky’s government and install a regime that will bow to the Kremlin.
As CBS News senior foreign correspondent Holly Williams reports, the fate of the country is hanging in the balance.
