New Delhi: Amid reports of Volodymyr Zelenskyy fleeing to Poland, the Ukrainian President on Saturday (March 5, 2022) said that he has not left the country.
Taking to his official Instagram account, Zelenskyy posted a video showing his Kyiv (Ukraine capital) office and wrote, "I am in Kyiv. I am working here. Nobody has escaped."
Reports of Zelenskyy leaving the war-torn country had also surfaced last week, with Zelenskyy refuting them and posting a selfie video standing on the street with his inner circle, showing them that his chief of staff, prime minister and closest advisers had also not left the capital.
Earlier on Friday, Russian State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin had said that the Ukrainian President has left Kyiv and is in Poland.
"Zelenskyy left Ukraine. The deputies of the Verkhovna Rada (parliament of Ukraine) said that they could not get to him in Lviv. Now he is in Poland," he said.
"For the safety of the President, we will not distribute information about where he is now. I will also neither refute nor confirm information about his whereabouts," Mikhail Podolyak, adviser to the head of the office of the President of Ukraine, said.
Meanwhile, Russia has declared a ceasefire in Ukraine for opening up humanitarian corridors for civilians to be evacuated. According to the Russian defence ministry, the opening up of the corridors would enable residents of the cities of Mariupol and Volnovakha, including the strategic port town of Mariupol, to evacuate.
It is noteworthy that the Russian forces had launched military operations in Ukraine on February 24, days after President Vladimir Putin recognized Ukraine's breakaway regions - Donetsk and Luhansk - as independent entities.
(With agency inputs)
