“I only remember it sketchyly. As a set of images and sounds. The liveliest on February 24 before dawn, when the bombing started, and my wife Olena and I went to wake the children, “the Ukrainian president described the critical moments of the start of the invasion.
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These were crucial moments, especially because the Russians allegedly sent raiders to Kiev to capture or kill Zelenský. If they succeeded, the course of the war in Ukraine could have been quite different, as could the determination of the Ukrainians to defend themselves against the Russian occupiers.
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There were explosions everywhere
Zelensky has two children – a seventeen-year-old daughter and a nine-year-old son. When the bombing began, the president alerted his wife and they went to wake the children together. “We woke them up and there was a lot of noise, explosions came from everywhere,” he recalls. It soon became clear that the president could not hide in his office for long.
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Zelenský’s army informed that special units of the Russian special forces had parachuted right into the streets of Kiev and were going for it. “Until that night, we only saw such things in movies,” added Andrij Jermak, head of the Zelenské presidential office.
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But the president and his entourage could not go out. They had to barricade themselves in office, hoping that the Russians would not make their way through the wall of the Ukrainian security forces. As night fell, the lights inside went out and the soldiers inside the building handed out automatic rifles and bulletproof vests to Zelensky and about a dozen of his aides.
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Only two people could handle rifles. One of them was the president’s adviser and veteran of Ukrainian intelligence Olexiy Arestovich. “It was an absolute madhouse. Distribute vending machines to all, “admitted Time to the reporter.
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However, the defense of the Ukrainian presidential residence lasted. Russian forces made two attempts to break into the building, but failed. Then came the West’s offer of evacuation and Zelenský’s famous refusal “I need weapons, not transport.”
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His sense of humor remained intact. “It’s a means of survival,” he explains. But two months did sign on it, reporter Time notes. Overall, it looks rougher and annoys faster. On the other hand, it seems perfectly resilient to ubiquitous threats.
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