About 2 million Kiev residents remained in the Ukrainian capital, every second has left the city, the Mayor of Kiev Vitali Klitschko said, Interfax-Ukraine reports

“According to the latest data, every second citizen of Kiev has left the city. There are now a little less than 2 million people in Kiev,” Klitschko said on Thursday on the Ukrainian national TV marathon.

According to him, Kiev has now turned into a castle.

“Every street, every house is being fortified, even people who were never going to wear military clothes, with machine guns in their hands, join the territorial defense. They are musicians, actors, representatives of different professions,” Klitschko said.

He emphasized that “the city has stood and will stand… And the people will not hand over the city, the enemy will not pass.”

It should be reminded that on the morning of 24 February, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the launch of a special military operation in Ukraine, aimed at ensuring the security of the Donetsk and Luhansk republics, as well as removing the “Nazi regime” in Ukraine.

The US and the EU have assessed Russia’s move as a direct aggression by Russia against Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty.

The Verkhovna Rada has declared martial law in Ukraine.