Zelensky Refuted Trump's Fabrication About Russia's Defeat Near Kyiv

He noted that initially, the Russians managed to achieve significant results in northern Ukraine, particularly near the capital, because the main forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were in the east. "They held the strongest grouping of Russians there. And no one expected them to come from Belarus to the capital. Therefore, here (in Kyiv, – UNIAN) we did not have strong units. Imagine, 200 thousand people are coming, and you need to defend yourself. You need an army, which today is 800 thousand. The main problem for the Russians was that they could not capture our capital. We held them back and destroyed them because they lacked the troops to hold the occupied territories. We hit them, and they retreated. Therefore, we completely repelled this direction, the Kyiv and Chernihiv regions. They simply did not have enough troops," said Zelensky. He added that the Russians actually managed to reach Kyiv and surround the capital. They also captured a number of cities along the way. Zelensky also commented on Donald Trump's fabrication that Russia allegedly could not capture Kyiv only because some Russian general ordered tanks to advance through a field, causing the armored vehicles to get stuck in the mud. "I don’t know what President Trump is talking about. The amount of equipment they lost near Kyiv – hundreds of vehicles burned. They simply blocked us, and we started hitting them; they didn’t know what to do. Their equipment partially broke through to Kyiv, right into the capital, armored vehicles were driving through the streets, and people were burning them. And they were especially surprised when they drove through the streets, and people were burning them. The issue is not that some general was a fool. I believe that whoever gave the order did not fully understand what was happening. They needed about 300 thousand – 400 thousand soldiers to take Kyiv. They needed twice as many people," explained the president.