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THE Klitschko brothers have headed to the frontline in Kyiv ahead of a Russian siege and declared they were “ready to die for Ukraine”.
Vitali and his ex-heavyweight boxing world champ brother Wladimir visited a military checkpoint on the outskirts of the capital on Sunday.
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Images from the frontline show Vitali, who is the mayor of Kyiv, and his brother being escorted around the checkpoint in bullet-proof vests by Ukrianian defenders.
At one point, Vitali is a witness to an improv wedding between territorial defense fighter Lesya and her new hubby Valeriy and is later captured standing in front of a sign that read “Iron Kyiv”.
The frontline tour comes Russian forces advance on the capital with the aim of choking it off after a 40-mile-long convoy was spotted heading towards Kyiv this week.
Russian airstrikes have edged ever closer to Kyiv, forcing thousands to flee the outskirt towns of Irpin and Bucha.
The visit comes as Vitaly says he’s ready to die to defend the capital.
The 50-year-old has taken up arms alongside younger brother and will only leave his capital city victorious or dead.
“I am very proud to see how patriotic people are,” he told CNN . “We’re not interested in how strong the Russian army is, we’re ready to fight.
“And we’re ready to die for our home country and for our families, because it’s our home.
“It’s our future and somebody wants to come to our home and steal our future from us.”
When asked how long he thinks his makeshift army can hold off Vladimir Putin’s marauding brutes, he admitted his own mortality is part of the equation.
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“I’m not ready to give you a clear answer,” he said. “So long, such a long time – if we’re still alive”.
The two former heavyweight champions told Sky News they had already killed six people in the capital where Ukrainian troops are trying to weed out separate Russian groups.
It comes days after Vitaly warned Russia risked a “Chernobyl/Fukushima combined” if they continued to attack Ukrainian nuclear power plants.
In a chilling tweet following the seizure of the the Zaporizhzhia plant on Thursday by Russian, Vitaly warned: “If this war in Ukraine is not STOPPED NOW the world will face another Chernobyl/Fukushima combined.
“Ukraine has 4 nuclear power plants and [the] Russian army is shooting rockets and bombing right next to it. Don’t look away, STOP [the] Russian invasion NOW!!!”.
It comes as:
Security footage from the nuclear site in southern Ukraine showed flames and smoke leaking from buildings.
The country’s State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate warned on Friday that while no changes in radiation have been registered yet, there are still potential risks posed by any damage to cooling facilities and spent fuel storage containers at the site.
The agency said any loss of the power station’s ability to cool down nuclear fuel would lead to “significant radioactive releases into the environment”.
It said such an event might “exceed all previous accidents at nuclear power plants,” including the Chernobyl accident and the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
The agency didn’t say whether cooling facilities had been damaged by Russian shelling.
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