© KEYSTONE/EPA/SERGEY DOLZHENKO
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky congratulated himself on the night of Wednesday to Thursday for having thwarted the “sneaky” plans of Russia which invaded his country. He said he was proud of the “heroic” resistance of the Ukrainians.
“We are a nation that broke the enemy’s plans in a week. Plans written for years: sneaky, full of hatred for our country, our people,” Zelensky said in a video posted on Telegram.
The Ukrainian president said he “sincerely admires the heroic inhabitants” of the cities who resist the Russian forces and their advance, on the seventh day of the invasion.
He assured that nearly 9,000 Russian soldiers had been killed in the past week, a figure that cannot be verified immediately.
Moscow for its part revealed on Wednesday its first toll of Russian soldiers killed in the offensive in Ukraine, announcing the death of 498 of its soldiers and specifying that 1,597 others were injured there.
On Twitter, Mr. Zelensky also claimed to have spoken on the phone with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and to have thanked him for the sanctions imposed on Moscow, calling on him to take new ones.
He said he also met with Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, an ally of Moscow, and agreed to “cooperate on humanitarian issues”.