'Come from your offices, homes, schools and universities, come in the name of peace – to support Ukraine,' Zelensky tells world

Gulf Today Report

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made an impassioned plea on Thursday to show support for his embattled country on the one-month anniversary of the Russian invasion that he said breaks the heart of "every free person on the planet.”

Zelensky called on people worldwide to gather in public for citizens worldwide to pour onto streets and squares in global protest against Russia's bloody month-old invasion.

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Zelensky — whose video messages have repeatedly riveted the world’s attention — also said he would speak to NATO members by video to ask the alliance to provide "effective and unrestricted” support to Ukraine, including any weapons the country needs to fend off the Russian onslaught.

"Come to your squares, your streets. Make yourselves visible and heard,” Zelensky said in English during an emotional video address late Wednesday that was recorded in the dark near the presidential offices in Kyiv. "Say that people matter. Freedom matters. Peace matters. Ukraine matters.”

The world must stop the war, says Zelensky.

In a late-night television address from the emptied streets of his nation's besieged capital Kyiv, a defiant but visibly tired Zelensky appealed in English for worldwide solidarity.

"The world must stop the war," he said. "Come from your offices, your homes, your schools and universities, come in the name of peace, come with Ukrainian symbols to support Ukraine, to support freedom, to support life."

His appeal came one month after Russian tanks rolled over the border, bringing a conflict that has killed untold thousands of civilians and soldiers on both sides.

More than ten million Ukrainians have already fled homes and cities under sustained Russian bombardment from land, sea and air.

When Russia unleashed its invasion Feb. 24 in Europe’s biggest offensive since World War II, a swift toppling of Ukraine’s government seemed likely. But with Wednesday marking four full weeks of fighting, Moscow is bogged down in a grinding military campaign.