US provided security for Ukrainian President Zelenskyy at Munich conference: Durbin

US provided security for Ukrainian President Zelenskyy at Munich conference: Durbin

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The United States provided security to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last week at a security conference in Munich Germany, Sen. Dick Durbin said Friday, as Russian forces are now believed to be targeting Zelenskyy amid their war on Ukraine.

“We also were surprised to have President Zelenskyy on Saturday come and speak to us last Saturday in Munich. Many people said he was risking his life to do it, and I believe he was,” Durbin, D-Ill., said of the perceived Russian threat to Zelenskyy.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy attends a joint press conference with his counterparts from Lithuania and Poland following their talks in Kyiv on Feb. 23, 2022.
(SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP via Getty Images)

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“I think you should know if you don’t already that the United States was providing protection and security for him for that trip so that he could make an appeal, personal appeal to the people of the world in light of what he was facing,” Durbin added.

The U.S. Senate is out this week. Durbin made the comments at the Ukrainian Cultural Center in Chicago.

Russia under President Vladimir Putin is known for assassinating and disappearing journalists, dissidents and opposition leaders, both within and outside its own borders.

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Russian forces are currently invading Ukraine from multiple angles and pushing on its capital of Kyiv, where Zelenskyy posted a social media video from earlier Friday. Zelenskyy said Thursday night in a video that Russian sabotage groups were in Kyiv searching for him and his family.

It’s expected that Russia will eventually overwhelm Ukraine’s inferior defenses – but reports indicate that Putin’s forces are having a harder time invading Ukraine than initially expected.

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Zelenskyy is demanding that the Europe and NATO ratchet up sanctions on Russia as Putin warns that further involvement from the West could result in even more military conflict.

Fox News’ Nana Sajaia contributed to this report.