“This might be last time you see me alive” – Ukrainian President tells EU

Ukraine President, Volodymyr Zelensky has told European Union leaders in a video call Friday night that it could be the last time they see him alive, TopNaija reports.

Walla News Diplomatic Correspondent Barak claims two people briefed on the call told him. Zelenskyy is currently hiding in Ukraine’s capital city of Kyiv as more than 100,000 Russian troops continue to attack the country on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s orders.

“We were supposed to talk on the phone this morning, but he was no longer available,” Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi told his Parliament Friday morning of Zelenskyy.

Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson, who was also on the Thursday-night call with Zelenskyy, reportedly told the Swedish News Agency that “this may have been the last time we saw Zelensky.”

Zelenskyy said in an early Thursday-morning address that Russian saboteurs had entered Kyiv and said intelligence found “the enemy has identified me as the number one target.”

U.S. President Joe Biden issued more sanctions on Russian banks and high-profile oligarchs Thursday but stopped short of sending troops in.

“We have no intention of fighting Russia,” Biden said during a press conference. “We want to send an unmistakable message, though, that the United States and our allies will defend every inch of NATO territory.”

More than 1,700 anti-war protestors have been arrested across more than 50 Russian cities in a rare display of public outrage at Putin’s invasion.

Zelenskyy grew up in Kryvyi Rih, a Russian-speaking region in south-eastern Ukraine. Prior to his acting career, Zelenskyy obtained a degree in law from the Kyiv National Economic University. He then pursued comedy and created the production company Kvartal 95, which produces films, cartoons, and TV shows including Servant of the People, in which Zelenskyy played the role of president of Ukraine. The series aired from 2015 to 2019 and was immensely popular. A political party bearing the same name as the television show was created in March 2018 by employees of Kvartal 95.

Zelenskyy announced his candidacy for the 2019 Ukrainian presidential election on the evening of 31 December 2018, alongside the New Year’s Eve address of President Petro Poroshenko on 1+1 TV Channel. A political outsider, he had already become one of the frontrunners in opinion polls for the election. He won the election with 73.2% of the vote in the second round, defeating Poroshenko. Identifying as a populist, he has positioned himself as an anti-establishment, anti-corruption figure.