As Ukrainian men, ages 18 to 60, are banned from leaving the country, they are all taking up arms to defend themselves amid an invasion from Russia, including former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.
“We shall deal with [Russian President Vladimir] Putin like with a man of a lost reason. And he’s just simply mad. He’s just simply crazy. He’s just simply evil to come here to kill Ukrainian[s],” Poroshenko said.
“Ukrainian[s] who is we lost now about 130 Ukrainian soldiers and about 800 Russian soldiers who were killed just yesterday under the report of Ukrainian Minister of Defense.”
During an interview with CNN, New Day co-host John Berman asked the former Ukrainian leader his intentions over the next few hours should Russians roll into Kyiv.
“This is very easy. My assistants here here,” said Poroshenko, who grabbed an AK-47. “We don’t have heavy artilleries; we don’t have tanks. We don’t have an armed personal carrier because we launched this process just a couple days ago.”
Nonetheless, Poroshenko adds that people want to join his force, but there aren’t “enough arms” for them. Also, when asked how long they can continue this fight, the former politician said that his force can hold out “forever.”
“Putin never will catch Ukraine despite … no matter no how many soldiers he has, how many missiles he has, how many nuclear weapons he has. We Ukrainian are free people with a great European future. This is definitely like that,” Poroshenko said.
On Wednesday, Russia launched a further military invasion of Ukraine, including bombings and cyberattacks, leading to the United States and its allies announcing sanctions against Russia. Then on Thursday night, Russian soldiers reportedly entered the capital city of Kyiv.
Eduardo Razo is the Assistant Content Editor for BNM, which includes writing daily news stories on the news media industry. He can be found on Twitter @eddierazo_ or you can reach him by email at eddie1991razo@gmail.com.
