Ukraine's president with his parents

The U.S. government is prepared to help Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky leave Kyiv to avoid being captured or killed by advancing Russian forces, according to U.S. and Ukrainian officials. But so far, the president has refused to go.




As the Russian military ratcheted up its attacks on Friday, a defiant Zelensky pledged to remain in charge of his government despite grave personal risk. “According to the information we have, the enemy has marked me as target No. 1, my family as target No. 2,” he told Ukrainians in an early-morning address. “They want to destroy Ukraine politically by destroying the head of state.”



For weeks, Zelensky has heard those warnings from U.S. officials.


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When CIA Director William J. Burns flew to Ukraine in January to meet with Zelensky about the growing Russian threat to his country, the Ukrainian president asked whether he or his family were personally in danger, according to a Zelensky aide, who said that the leader was skeptical the Russians would try to kill him.