Dec. 31 (UPI) -- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky delivered a New Year's Eve speech in which he said that Russia is waging war on his country so Vladimir Putin can remain in power for the rest of his life.
Zelensky normally addresses the nation in Ukrainian each night amid Russia's war in Ukraine but switched to speaking Russian during his remarks Saturday night.
"This war that you are waging, Russia, it is not the war with NATO, as your propagandists lie. It is not for something historical. It's for one person to remain in power until the end of his life," Zelensky said in his speech.
"And what will be with all of you, citizens of Russia, does not concern him."
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Putin, 70, has led Russia continuously as either president or prime minister since 1999 despite contentious elections.
He signed constitutional amendments in April 2021 that would allow him to run for reelection two more times, potentially extending his presidency into 2036. The Russian president is elected to a six-year term.
Zelensky, still directing his comments to Russian citizens, added that Putin wants to show that Russian troops are behind him and that he is winning the war.
"But he is just hiding. He hides behind the troops, behind missiles, behind the walls of his residences and palaces," Zelensky said.
"He hides behind you and burns your country and your future. No one will ever forgive you for terror. No one in the world will forgive you for this. Ukraine will never forgive."
His comments came after Moscow hit Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, and other parts of the country in a wave of missile strikes.
At least one person was killed and 20 others were injured in Kyiv on Saturday, according to Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko.
Two school buildings in the Solomyansk district of the capital and another in Pechersk "suffered varying degrees of damage" while strikes were also conducted in the Khmelnytskyi region in western Ukraine and in the Mykolaiv region in southern Ukraine.
Putin on Saturday delivered his New Year's Eve address from a military base with soldiers in the background as he accused the West of leveraging the war in Ukraine to sow discord.
"It was a year of difficult, necessary decisions, the most important steps toward gaining full sovereignty of Russia and powerful consolidation of our society," he said.
"The West lied about peace, but was preparing for aggression, and today it admits it openly, no longer embarrassed. And they cynically use Ukraine and its people to weaken and split Russia."
