Within hours of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy issued arms to the citizenry, publicly declaring that any citizen who wished to defend their country would be equipped to do so.
We will give weapons to anyone who wants to defend the country. Be ready to support Ukraine in the squares of our cities.
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) February 24, 2022
We will lift sanctions on all citizens of Ukraine who are ready to defend our country as part of territorial defense with weapons in hands.
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) February 24, 2022
Russian troops are pouring into Ukraine while air assaults pummel military installations, hospitals, and airports. Russian President Vladimir Putin demanded Ukrainian forces to lay down their weapons and go home, or face total destruction.
Zelenskyy, unwilling to see his people be slaughtered in an unprovoked assault without a fight, issued a series of messages through Twitter, urging his fellow citizens to defend their country.
Zelenksyy made a passionate speech in which he promised that any military advance on the country will be met with staunch retaliation. “If we’ll be attacked by the [enemy] troops, if they try to take our country away from us, our freedom, our lives, the lives of our children, we will defend ourselves. Not attack, but defend ourselves. And when you will be attacking us, you will see our faces, not our backs, but our faces,” he declared.
Just days before, the Ukrainian parliament passed laws to allow for citizens to be equipped with arms, and within hours of its passage, gun stores across the country were emptied out.
Not all Ukrainians chose to take up arms against the modern and mechanized Russian army, particularly after Russia’s air assault devastated deep regions of the country, and caused widespread fear and panic.
Highways leading west out of the country were jammed up on Thursday morning, as many sought to flee into Europe.
Russia declared at the end of the day that it had obliterated 74 military installations, including 11 airfields. Russian troops also captured an airport just outside of the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, and the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
Western governments have not yet mounted a military response, rather they are hoping that Russia’s campaign will cost them dearly in sanctions, starving the country of money. It remains to be seen whether or not sanctions alone can work quickly enough to defend Ukraine, or deter Putin at all.
