Former President Petro Poroshenko joined Ukrainian soldiers ready to defend Kyiv against Russian forces on Friday.
Explosions were heard in the capital city as Russian President Vladimir Putin's forces pressed on with a full-scale invasion that resulted in the deaths of more than 100 Ukrainians.
Just as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy vowed to stay in Kyiv despite being the Russians' "No. 1 target," Poroshenko said he believed the Russians were after him, too.
"I have a feeling that I am specific target of the Russian for already eight years. And this is — me is just a symbol. We're not afraid of them," Poroshenko said via Skype on CNN. "While we are here we have a report from our civil defense that in five minutes we will have a Russian bomb in the center of Kyiv. And we have a bomb shelter 100 meters from here.
"We in Ukraine are not standing in line for the bread, for the cash from the bank machine. We are standing in line for the weapons. We are standing in line to give our blood to our soldiers. And with this situation, we demonstrate a unique quality that we can stand against Russian aggression. We can stand against Russian occupation. We are united together with whole world."
Poroshenko, wearing a black jacket, stood among members of a Territorial Defense Forces battalion and little more than a mile from fighting. After saying the group had two machine guns, he took aim at Putin.
"He's just simply mad. He's just simply crazy," the former president said. "He's just simply evil to come here to kill Ukrainians.
"Putin declared a war not for Ukraine. Putin declared a war to the whole world, every single person who is watching right now. And I think this is also a war to President [Joe] Biden."
While praising other countries' sanctions on Russia, Poroshenko called on world leaders to sever the Kremlin's access to SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication), which facilitates financial transactions and money transfers for banks located around the world.
"We definitely need now SWIFT. It is the same as Nord Stream 2 [pipeline]," he said. "It is the symbol of our solidarity. And these things definitely help us.
"We definitely need to block Russian ships and Russian planes in the whole [European Union] and NATO ports. We definitely need to do everything we could. And I call on the West to come to Ukraine's support today. And this is the maximum you can do to support democracy and freedom in the whole world."
Poroshenko, who served as president 2014-19, thanked Americans and the British for supplying his country with arms, especially the Javelin anti-tank missiles.
"I want to thank the U.S., the U.K for the Javelin," he said. "And I want to inform you my battalion has Javelin. And every single shot will be Russian tank was successful and effective. This is also your part of success. Thank you."
He also had a message for Putin.
"I think Putin never will catch Ukraine despite — no matter how many soldiers he kills, how many missiles he has, how many nuclear weapons he has," Poroshenko said. "We Ukrainian are free people with a great European future."
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