Ukrainian President Voldymyr Zelensky promised on Wednesday that Russia would not overthrow his government in pounding ukrainian cities and civilians with missiles, but with the pressure of unprecedented international sanctions on Moscow mounting day by day, this increasingly looked like Vladimir Putin’s strategy.

Zelensky said Wednesday evening that around 9,000 members of the Russian invasion force had been killed since Putin launched his unprovoked attack. war against ukraine A week ago. Ukraine’s state emergency service, meanwhile, said more than 2,000 civilians had been killed since the Russian invasion began, and a government official said there were at least 21 children. among the dead.

Zelensky remained defiant in a video address Wednesday evening, saying “We are a people who in a week destroyed the plans of the enemy.”

“They won’t have peace here. They won’t have food. They won’t have a single moment of calm here,” added the Ukrainian president.

Putin’s forces continue to slowly push into Ukrainian territory, but after seven days of war it was unclear whether Russia had yet to capture a major Ukrainian city. Russian officials have claimed ‘full control‘ of Kherson, on the southern coast, but Ukrainian and American officials have denied the claim, with an adviser to Zelensky saying that ‘the city has not fallen, our side continues to defend itself “.

US officials have said a massive column of Russian troops and weapons currently about 20 miles north of Kiev could move to encircle the capital in a week and then seize it in a month.

But Russia’s ranged war – an increasingly ruthless barrage of heavy artillery hitting major population centers – is already taking a heavy toll on Ukrainian civilians. At least 1 million people have fled their homes to neighboring countries, according to the UN refugee agency. Tens of thousands more continue to wait in long border lines, frozen with children and pets, fleeing a Russian attack that the United States said Wednesday was expected to worsen.

In his first State of the Union address on Tuesday evening, President Biden expressed his solidarity with the people of Ukraine and lambasted Putin, whom he vowed he would “pay a high and continued long-term price” for his decision to unleash “violence and chaos” on his neighbours.