Volodymyr Zelenskyy approached a lectern underneath vivid lights, making ready to ship a message to the Ukrainian folks.
"Immediately I'll begin with long-awaited phrases, which I want to announce with pleasure," he mentioned.
"Lastly," he continued. "Ukraine is United ... That is our victory."
LIVE UPDATES:'Sturdy resistance' slows Russian advance on Kyiv
The speech was fiction. It's from the closing scene of Servant of the Folks, a satirical TV present a few down-on-his-luck high-school instructor, performed by Mr Zelenskyy, who's thrust into the Ukrainian presidency after his rant about corruption goes viral.
The collection did not simply make Mr Zelenskyy a star.
It will definitely served because the springboard for his real-life presidential marketing campaign.
In April 2019, inside a month of the present's finale, the comedian-turned politician was elected Ukraine's president.
Mr Zelenskyy once more discovered himself in entrance of a lectern Friday, however the image he outlined within the present's last moments has by no means felt additional away after Russian forces invaded Ukraine on Thursday.
The battle for the capital, Kyiv, continued to rage Friday.
Explosions lit up the sky because the Kremlin focused town with missile strikes earlier than daybreak, forcing folks into air raid shelters.
In his Friday morning televised deal with, Mr Zelenskyy was once more a person in character, this time taking part in David to Russian President Vladimir Putin's Goliath.
In a darkish inexperienced tee shirt with darkish circles underneath his eyes, the Ukrainian president struck a defiant tone and praised the nation's armed forces for "brilliantly defending the nation."
"Now is a crucial second," Mr Zelenskyy mentioned.
"The destiny of our nation is being determined."
Mr Zelenskyy has additionally been energetic on social media, utilizing his Twitter account to submit updates and reassure Ukrainians that he's staying within the nation to steer the resistance.
In a video posted on Saturday morning titled "don't consider the fakes," Mr Zelenskyy revealed that he's nonetheless in Kyiv.
"I'm right here. We aren't placing down arms. We can be defending our nation, as a result of our weapon is reality, and our reality is that that is our land, our nation, our kids, and we are going to defend all of this," he mentioned.
"That's it. That is all I needed to let you know. Glory to Ukraine," he added.
Mr Zelenskyy has additionally turned down a US provide of evacuation from Kyiv, the Ukraine embassy in Britain mentioned Saturday on Twitter.
"The struggle is right here; I want ammunition, not a experience," Mr Zelenskyy informed the US, in response to the embassy.
"Ukrainians are happy with their President," the tweet provides.
'This gang of drug addicts and neo-Nazis'
Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine started early on Thursday. Moscow's forces attacked by land, sea and air, prompting a barrage of worldwide condemnation and sanctions —and questions on Mr Putin's wider ambitions for Ukraine and its capital.
Mr Putin framed the "navy operation" as a obligatory motion after the US and its allies crossed Russia's "purple strains" by increasing NATO eastward.
Mr Zelenskyy on Friday once more referred to as for Putin to carry direct talks.
"There may be combating throughout Ukraine now. Let's sit down on the negotiation desk to cease the folks's deaths," he mentioned in Russian.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov mentioned on Friday that Russia was prepared to participate in talks in Minsk, in response to reporting by Russian state information company RIA-Novosti.
An adviser to Mr Zelenskyy informed CNN that Kyiv is contemplating the proposal.
Ukraine's democratically elected authorities stays intact, however Mr Putin has made it clear this week that he doesn't see Ukraine as a authentic sovereign state.
On Friday he referred to as on Ukrainians to overthrow Mr Zelenskyy themselves.
"Take energy into your individual palms," Mr Putin mentioned.
"It appears like it will likely be simpler for us to return to an settlement (with you) than with this gang of drug addicts and neo-Nazis that has settled in Kyiv and brought hostage the complete Ukrainian folks."
Kyiv a ghost city amid strict curfew
Mr Putin and his authorities have repeatedly put ahead baseless and inaccurate claims that the democratically elected Ukrainian authorities is a "fascist" or "Nazi" regime.
Mr Putin's feedback are unlikely to spur any form of Ukrainian rebellion.
A lot of Kyiv's residents have left town, and people who stay are unlikely to help him, contemplating Ukraine's final pro-Russian chief was ousted in a well-liked rebellion in 2014.
Mr Zelenskyy was elected 5 years later, thrashing incumbent Petro Poroshenko, however his tenure has been rocky.
The primary a number of months of his time period have been engulfed by the quid-pro-quo scandal which noticed former US President Donald Trump's try to exert stress on Ukraine to dig up filth on election opponent and now-President Joe Biden and his son Hunter.
COVID-19 then tore by the nation.
Mr Zelenskyy's marketing campaign guarantees, resembling ending the warfare in jap Ukraine and stamping out corruption, stay unfilled.
However the hazard Mr Zelenskyy faces is not simply political.
US officers warned lawmakers that Russian forces who entered Ukraine by Belarus have been about 32kms away from Kyiv, sources informed CNN.
And intelligence officers in Washington are involved town might fall underneath Russian management inside days.
State Division spokesman Ned Value mentioned Mr Zelenskyy stays a "prime goal for Russian aggression," whereas Mr Zelenskyy himself mentioned Russia had marked him as their "primary goal."
"They wish to destroy Ukraine politically by destroying the pinnacle of state," he mentioned.