Daniel N. Hoffman said on Saturday that it appears 'Russia has overstretched' its military.
post, Zelenskyy demanded that Russia be held accountable by the international community for its actions.
"Ukraine has submitted its application against Russia to the ICJ [International Court of Justice]. Russia must be held accountable for manipulating the notion of genocide to justify aggression. We request an urgent decision ordering Russia to cease military activity now and expect trials to start next week," he tweeted.
Putin and top Russian officials have claimed that Ukraine was committing"genocide" against Russian speakers in the Eastern Donbas region of the country, describing the leadership of the Eastern European nation as"neo-Nazis." However, Zelenskyy is Jewish and won his 2019 election in what analysts described as a"landslide"—with about three-quarters of the vote. At the time of his election, the prime minister of Ukraine was also Jewish.
Zelenskyy had seen his popularity among Ukrainians wane since he took office, but has drawn widespread praise from the population and the international community in the face of Russia's aggression. He refused Western government's offers to evacuate reportedly saying,"The fight is here. I need ammunition, not a ride."
Since then, he has released a series of videos from Kyiv rallying the country in the face of Putin's invasion."We are not putting down arms. We will be defending our country, because our weapon is truth, and our truth is that this is our land, our country, our children, and we will defend all of this," the Ukrainian president said in a Saturday morning video.