Ukrainian President Zelensky: This is going to be the toughest night

Canada also personally takes sanctions against Putin and Lavrov

Following the lead of the US and the EU, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also announced sanctions against Russian President Vladimir Putin and his foreign minister personally, Reuters news agency reported. It is a third package of sanctions in a week that specifically targets Putin and his “co-architects of this barbaric war.”

According to Trudeau, this is a unique step. “We as a global community have never before taken the step of personally taking sanctions against him and this shows that we are aligned as Western countries.”

Canada is also introducing additional sanctions against Belarus and the country’s leaders who are “accomplices” in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Furthermore, Trudeau said he is in favor of excluding Russia from the international payment system Swift. For now, the European Union, the US and the UK do not want to go that far. The Netherlands is in favour, Prime Minister Mark Rutte said at his weekly press conference on Friday.

Ukrainian President Zelensky: This is going to be the toughest night

Ukrainian President Vlodymyr Zelensky expects a large-scale attack on the capital Kiev this night. “This is going to be the heaviest night,” he said after midnight local time a new video message† “This night will be heavier than the day, but the sun will rise again.” He said Kiev cannot be lost, but also stressed that many other cities are under attack from Russia. Zelensky explicitly mentioned Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkov and the entire Donbass region.

“I speak to our defenders, men and women on all fronts, tonight the enemy will use all its forces to break through our defenses in the most vicious, harsh and inhumane way,” the president said.

Also read: Street fights threaten in historic capital Kiev

On Friday evening, Kiev mayor Klitschko also wrote on Telegram that the coming night will be very difficult. “The situation is, without exaggeration, very threatening,” he wrote. Ukraine reported earlier on Friday that Russian troops had approached Kiev within a few miles. Late in the evening the air raid siren sounded and explosions were heard, according to several Western journalists.