Ukrainian President Vladimir Green he said the United States and the West had acted too late to protect his country from the power of the Russian military, and described how “the end of the world came” during a news conference on Thursday.
He called for more help during a provocative appearance in his capital, Kyiv, as fighting entered its second week.
A Pentagon spokesman said Russia had already sent almost all of its combat power across the border into Ukraine, while reports indicated they were gaining ground in the south.
Zelenski repeated his request for a NATO no-fly zone to protect its cities and troops.
And eight days after the war, he said he already had good lines of communication with President Joe Biden and other leaders, but complained that they had stepped up support only after Russia launched its invasion.
“It’s unfortunate that it started after this war started, but we have it. And my gratitude to [Biden] and his team. “We can talk often now,” he said
“The whole world is late with Ukraine in making decisions.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the United States and the West acted too late to protect his country from Russian power, and described how “the end of the world came” during a news conference Thursday.
Pictured: Map showing the Kyiv region and the area occupied by Russian troops as they approach the Ukrainian capital
Ukrainian armored personnel carrier in Sitnyaki, west of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv. Russia continues its attack on Ukraine’s major cities as fighting enters its second week
Passers-by check past a destroyed Russian military machine at a front position in Irpen, Ukraine. The Ukrainian resistance is credited with stopping Russia’s advance
War in Ukraine: Latest updates from attacked cities
Mariupol – The mayor reports a “full-scale genocide” with 15 hours of Russian shelling, killing hundreds. Russia says it has cordoned off the port city.
Three boys injured in an apparent Russian shelling while playing football on Wednesday were rushed to hospital. One lost his leg and died soon after
Kherson – Ukrainians say they are fighting in the port, the first big city Russia claims to have taken
Kharkov – The bombing of Kharkov, a city of 1.5 million people, has turned its center into a wasteland of destroyed buildings and debris, according to eyewitnesses.
Kyiv – Powerful explosions were heard at night, as people on the ground announced that car alarms were triggered. A 40-kilometer convoy of military vehicles is outside the city
Gorenka – Ukrainian reservists set up checkpoints to stop Russia’s offensive outside Kyiv
Irpin – mayor of a city 15 miles west of Kyiv announced a missile strike on a high-rise apartment building
Odessa – Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hana Malyar said on Wednesday that reports suggest Russian artillery hit the city’s airport this morning.
Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Kharkiv and Chernihiv – Russians use Iskander missile systems to bomb cities
Donetsk and Luhansk – UNHCR said today that 96,000 people crossed into Russia from separatist regions between February 18 and 23 days before the Russian invasion
Zelensky and his allies called on the West to tighten financial sanctions against Moscow as Vladimir Putin rallies his troops on the border with Ukraine to deter an invasion.
But the White House and allies only stepped up pressure after Putin ordered troops into Ukraine.
More support came Thursday in the form of sanctions against oligarchs and others in the Russian president’s inner circle.
Now his country is struggling to survive, Zelenski said.
“The end of the world has come,” he said.
After saying the world was too slow to act, he called on Western leaders to step up their support now with a no-fly zone that would ban Russian warplanes.
He said the world was too slow to offer support for Ukraine, and urged Western leaders to impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine to ban access by Russian warplanes bombing civilian areas.
“We want a no-fly zone because our people have been killed. “From Belarus, from Russia – these missiles, these Iskander missiles and bombers are coming,” Zelensky said.
“I asked President Biden, Scholz and Macron… and I said, if you can’t secure a no-fly zone right now, then tell us when?”
The White House and NATO allies have rejected a move that would directly pit its warplanes against Russian forces.
Zelensky also challenged Putin to sit down for talks.
In a sarcastic reference to the Putin-sized table that Putin uses to meet with other foreign leaders, he said: “Sit down with me to negotiate, but not 30 meters away.
“I do not bite. What are you afraid of?’
Foreign leaders welcomed the spirit of Ukrainian resistance, which has been blamed for delaying or halting Russia’s offensive.
But that only doubled Putin and his generals.
Russia has accelerated the arrival of troops in Ukraine, a senior U.S. defense official told reporters, with 90 percent of the troops already in Ukraine.
More than 150,000 troops, along with tanks, planes, armored personnel carriers and missile systems, had gathered around the borders before the invasion.
The result was a day of fierce battle.
Kherson, a city of 300,000 on the Black Sea, appears to have fallen under Russian control after the mayor said “armed visitors” had convened a council meeting and imposed a curfew. If Putin’s people have full control, then the city of Odessa, home to Ukraine’s main naval port, is under attack – with assault ships observed to form near Crimea today
Part of the Karazin National University campus in Kharkiv was destroyed after being hit by a Russian missile that appears to have been intended for a nearby police or interior ministry building
Serhiy Badilevich, 41, hugs his 42-year-old wife Natalia and a child in an underground metro station used as a bomb shelter in Kyiv
The White House announced more sanctions against Russian oligarchs and Putin’s inner circle on Thursday. “The goal was to maximize the impact on Putin and Russia and to minimize harm to us and our allies and friends around the world,” Biden said.
The deputy mayor of Mariupol said hours of shelling and siege by Russian troops had cut off electricity, food and water in his city.
“We are close to a humanitarian catastrophe,” said Sergei Orlov. “Russian forces are a few kilometers away on all sides.
“The Ukrainian army is brave and they will continue to defend the city, but Russia is not fighting with its army, they are just destroying areas … We are in a terrible situation.”
And officials in Kyiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city Kharkiv, and the northern city of Chernihiv, said they had been fiercely attacked but remained under Ukrainian control.
Meanwhile, the Biden administration has imposed new sanctions on Russian business oligarchs and those close to Putin.
Among them were Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov and Alisher Burkhanovich Usmanov, one of Russia’s richest men.
The US State Department also imposed a visa ban on 19 Russian oligarchs and dozens of members of their families and close associates.
“The goal was to maximize the impact on Putin and Russia and to minimize harm to us and our allies and friends around the world,” Biden said when he opened a White House cabinet meeting.