KIEV (Reuters) – Several thousand Ukrainians marched through the streets of Kiev on Saturday to show their unity amid fears of a Russian invasion and President Volodimir Zelensky urged people not to panic as he criticized reports of the imminence of a large-scale war.
The US President’s national security adviser, Joe Biden, said on Friday that a Russian invasion was likely to begin at any time. Russia, for its part, denies any plan of invasion.
Participants in the parade in central Kiev marched shouting “Glory to Ukraine” and some carried the Ukrainian flag or banners saying “Ukrainians will resist” or “The invaders must die”.
President Zelensky, who has attended security forces maneuvers in the south of the country, said a Russian attack was possible at any time but criticized reports he deemed excessive about the possibility of war.
“Our enemies’ best friend is panic in our country,” he said. “And all this information is just causing panic, it’s not helping us.”
“I can’t approve or disapprove of something that hasn’t happened yet. For now, there is no full-scale war in Ukraine,” he added.
Several Western countries, including the United States and Germany, have called on their nationals to leave Ukraine and Washington announced on Saturday that most of the staff of its embassy in Kiev was about to leave.
“We have to be ready constantly. It didn’t start yesterday. It started in 2014, so we are ready and that’s why we are here,” Volodimir Zelensky also said in reference to the annexation of Crime by the Russia and the support provided at the time by Moscow to the separatists in eastern Ukraine.
(Report Pavel Polityuk, French version Marc Angrand)
by Pavel Polityuk and Valentin Ogirenko