Ukrainian members of parliament take up arms, join citizens on the street: 'The government is staying in Kyiv'
Ukrainian Member of Parliament citizens won't 'just give up'
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Ukrainian Member of Parliament Sviatoslav Yurash told Tucker Carlson on Monday that he is taking up arms and joining his fellow countrymen on the streets of Kyiv to defend their country and reinforce Ukraine's "dreams of independence."
"The reality is, we are in Kyiv. We are being sieged right now and this is the capital of the largest European state that is basically under the full-scale invasion of Russia that is trying to destroy it, annihilate it…they want to take it over in every way," Yurash said
"The point here, is that there is no citizen that is not thinking about what he will do when Russia tries to take over the city. And those millions of people in this city are taking up arms, taking up any instrument they can to try to resist."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said last week that the government would hand out weapons to anyone willing to take to the streets. By Friday, Ukrainian officials had handed out 18,000 guns, according to the BBC.
Kira Rudik, also a member of Ukraine's parliament, posted multiple pictures of herself with weapons, emphasizing that "[women] will protect our soil the same way as our [men]."
Yurash said that Ukrainians have already captured "POW's by the hundreds all over Ukraine now."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"They are trying to encircle the city the south and west is mostly open. We are trying to keep it that way by taking back towns in the west of Kyiv and on the front lines. That’s the point of trying to keep our city, ours," he told Carlson.
Asked whether he plans to stay in Kyiv, Yurash didn't skip a beat.
"Very much so," he said.
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"Our president is very near where I’m standing right now. The whole government is staying in Kyiv. It’s our capital city. We aren’t going to just give it up. This is our country. And we don’t want to allow Putin's illusions of grandeur to destroy our dreams and independence of liberty. We will fight for that."