Ukrainian military officials had warned their 44-year-old former comedian leader that enemy strike teams were known to have arrived in the capital within hours of the invasion to pursue him and his family, authorities told Time. “Before that night, we had only seen such things in the movies,” Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, told the news Mag. But Zelensky refused to leave, despite warnings that he was the Kremlin’s No. 1 target to be arrested or killed. As dozens of Ukrainian soldiers battled guns with invading troops in the streets, others tried to seal the presidential compound – even using garbage cans and police barricades to seal the gates. “The place was wide open,” recalled Oleksiy Arestovych, a veteran of Ukraine’s military intelligence service. “We did not even have concrete blocks to block the road.” From the first night, the firefight came closer to the government district – with Zelensky and about a dozen aides giving him bulletproof vests and rifles, officials told Time. Russian paratroopers have reportedly arrived in Kyiv to assassinate Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky within hours of the start of the invasion. Photo by RONALDO SCHEMIT / AFP via Getty Images “It was an absolute madhouse. “Automatically for everyone,” Arestovic told the magazine. Russian troops have made at least two attempts to invade the compound – all while the president’s wife and children, a 9-year-old son and a 17-year-old daughter – remained there, Zelensky told Time. However, the president refused to back down despite demands from his bodyguards, as well as proposals from both US and British forces to evacuate him so he could form an exiled government. It was then that he gave his famous advantage to the USA, saying: “I need ammunition, not a walk”. Video of Zelensky speaking in Kyiv on February 25, 2022 shortly after the start of the Russian invasion. Photo by – / FACEBOOK / @Volodymyr Zelensky / AFP via Getty Images An American official who spoke on condition of anonymity told Time: “We thought he was brave. “But very dangerous.” Zelensky not only refused to leave, but even made a show of taking to the streets to shoot a provocative video with his closest advisers – not far from where his army was fighting Russian invaders, Ukrainian officials told Time . “We are all here,” Zelensky said in a video he shared on social media. He later videotaped himself inside his presidential office, saying: “He is not hiding and I am not afraid of anyone.” Zelensky rejected offers to evacuate Ukraine as Russia invaded. Photo by SERGEI SUPINSKY / AFP via Getty Images He has since survived more than a dozen assassination attempts, said one of his top advisers. Zelensky told Time that he has “grown old” during the war. “I have grown old from all this wisdom that I never wanted. It is the wisdom associated with the number of people who have died and the torture inflicted by Russian soldiers. “That kind of wisdom,” he said. “To be honest, I never intended to acquire such knowledge.” However, when asked if he regretted ever running for president, he insisted: “Not for a second.”
