Thread by @timkmak

AP: Zelenskyy was urged to evacuate Kyiv at the behest of the U.S. government but turned down the offer, according to a senior American intelligence official with direct knowledge of the conversation.

The official quoted the president [Zelenskyy] as saying that “the fight is here” and that he needed anti-tank ammunition but “not a ride.”

Zelensky releases a video

“There’s a lot of fake information online that allegedly I am calling our army to surrender weapons and the evacuation is underway. Listen to me: I am here, we will not surrender any weapons, we will defend our country because our weapons is our truth”

“Our truth is that it’s our land, our country, our children, and we will be defending all this. That’s it. That’s all I wanted to tell you. Glory to Ukraine!” Zelensky said.

instagram.com/tv/Cabe-u9FUaf…

Just filed this short story on Tania, a resident of Ukraine. When she first saw a news story about the Russian invasion, she thought:

“Probably I will need another joint for that.”

Behind the scenes look at the mobile NPR recording studio in Ukraine… as you can tell by the ending, it can be disorienting

Like so many Ukrainians the NPR team is moving across this vast country, while being stopped by nervous local authorities at checkpoints and trying to find gas to keep going

Everyone is on edge. And not everyone knows how to handle a weapon. A policeman at a checkpoint — who apparently wasn’t v comfortable w his rifle— pointed his AK at me/my fixer while questioning us at a checkpoint. He was very jumpy and nervous.

And you can understand why Ukrainians are so nervous. The information environment here is wild… reports of Russian sabotage teams roaming across the country… infiltrators in Ukrainian uniforms… there is a lot of suspicion

Reporters in Kyiv are being warned not to go outside until Monday morning… on one thread for western journalists, reporters were told there is a curfew to root out Russian sabotage groups and anyone on the street might be considered one of them

On top of the paranoia is a layer of fear. In cities all across Ukraine air sirens are going off.. and multiple times a day. Here in one central Ukrainian city residents shuffle to an air raid shelter under a kindergarten. Our team joined them

Along our route one correspondent spotted two fighter jets… yesterday we received reports that a missile was shot down near the town we were headed to… and in another case an air strike was rumored down the road from where we were

The stress builds up to mass panic. While we were waiting in line for gas, someone came on the PA and shouted that everyone had to leave because of incoming air strike

Hundreds of People freaked out, ran in every direction… cars sped off dangerously, almost hitting the fleeing

In the area of Ukraine where we are, the military has asked residents to keep their lights off at night so that Russian jets don’t have landmarks

But an unintended consequence of this is that there’s a brilliant display of stars over Ukraine this evening

I brought the sounds of air raid sirens, tanks, checkpoints, and mass panic altogether in a piece for All Things Considered… a little window into Ukrainian life under martial law and the war:

npr.org/2022/02/26/108…