Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that he would stay in the capital city Kyiv despite Russian troops forcing their way into the city.
“The enemy has marked me down as the number one target. My family is the number two target. They want to destroy Ukraine politically by destroying the head of state,” Zelensky said in a video message.
“I will stay in the capital. My family is also in Ukraine,” he said.
An estimated 100,000 people in Ukraine fled to safety as explosions and gunfire filled the city of Kyiv.
At least 130 people reportedly died, and 300 were injured on the first day of Russian invasion.
Russian troops were closing in to Kyiv and expected to control the entire city in the next 96 hours, warned three unnamed US officials and former intelligence officers who were interviewed by Newsweek.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that he was “convinced” Russian President Vladimir Putin was hatching a plot to overthrow the Ukrainian government.
Blinken said in an interview on ABC’s World News Tonight: “I’m convinced he’s going to try to do that.”
However, he added: “My prediction would be that one way or another, they [Ukrainians] will strongly resist any effort to take away their sovereignty, take away their independence, take away their government.”
