Zelensky says he wants to see US president in Kyiv

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that the official visits of foreign leaders at the start of the war revealed Ukraine's true partners. He added that one day he hopes to welcome the U.S. president to Kyiv so that they can see firsthand the struggle of the Ukrainian people.

He stated this in his address on the fourth anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Ukrinform reports.

''We remember how the first foreign leaders arrived in Ukraine at the beginning of this war. And the term 'official visit' cannot in the slightest convey what these meetings were for us. We understood who was truly our brother and friend, who did not fear, did not hesitate, did not stain their name and did not worry about how not to anger Putin. I thank every leader who chose the side of light in history – chose Ukraine. In Europe, the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia. Everyone who stands with us. And I really want to come here with the President of the United States one day," he said.

Zelensky stressed that only by visiting Ukraine, seeing the lives and struggles of its people firsthand, and feeling the pain of the nation, can one truly understand what this war is really about, who the aggressor is, and who needs to be pressured.

"[Understand] that Ukraine defends life, fights precisely for this, and that this is not a street fight – it is an attack by a sick state on a sovereign one, and that Putin is this war. He is the cause of its beginning and the obstacle to its end. And it is Russia that must be put in its place. So that there can be real peace," he said.

Four years ago, on February 24, 2022, Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. At around 03:40, the first column of Russian tanks entered the Luhansk region, while Ukrainians in many cities woke up to the strikes of the first enemy missiles.