“I am ready to fight for my country!” wrote Kyiv’s Mayor, former World Boxing Champion, Vitali Klitschko in the German Bild publication on Dec 13.
“As a soldier, I once swore to defend the country and am now ready to fight for my motherland.“
Klitschko shared the urgent reality that his city of Kyiv, and all of Ukraine is preparing for the dark possibility that Russian President Vladimir Putin might order another invasion of Ukraine was the case with Ukraine's Crimea and Donbas in 2014.
According to Klitschko, “Putin has gathered more than 100,000 Russian soldiers near our borders”, representing an unprecedented threat to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine. “There are different scenarios for how the Russian army can attack Ukraine” and the country has to prepare for all of them.
The Mayor of Kyiv reminded international politicians and observers that they were all wrong in 2014 when they thought that Russia would never invade Ukraine, yet Russia did and still occupies Crimea and part of eastern Ukraine. And now it has an increasing build-up of over 100,000 thousand battle-ready troops near Ukraine's border.
Kyiv is preparing for “a possible emergency” according to Klitschko and he is active in organising civil defence along with the work of recruiting and training reservists to defend the capital and Ukraine if Putin launches another invasion in the coming weeks or months.
Klitschko urged readers of the Bild to understand that the situation is very serious as he called on the new German government to unblock the delivery of defensive equipment and support to Ukraine at this vital time.
“We don't want war, we want peace“
said Klitschko, but “we will not allow Russia to lead us back into the Soviet empire, which the people of Ukraine do not want to be in.”
Ukraine is a European country bordering many European countries and Ukraine needs increased European support now more than ever according to the Mayor of Kyiv
Source: Klitschko article in Bild.
