President Zelensky's right-hand man Andriy Yermak, dressed in a T-shirt and track-suit top, military style, strode into one of the rooms in the Presidential Office from where the top Ukrainian leadership has been conducting its battle for survival.
It was straight to business; no small-talk. After all, there's a war to be waged.
"We have forty minutes," he began. More than I had expected.
A long-time close friend of the President and now his chief of staff, Mr Yermak was anxious to tell the Mirror: "British people have been great, but now is the time to press other governments to deliver new weapons, and to impose new sanctions against Russia."
He said his country urgently needed anti-missile weapons -- and that he was hoping that Israel would provide some of its world-leading defensive capacities.
He added: "We also need another weapon: people telling the truth about the reality happening here. Because the truth is a very strong weapon."
He added: "The Ukrainians have shown to the world in the last eight months that we are fighting not just for our freedom and democracy. We are fighting for all the world."
With Russia using an estimated 2,400 killer drones, a new alliance of dictators threatened global stability, he said.
"Russia has become the equivalent of Hezbollah," he remarked.
"The Russians are aligning with the West's enemy Iran and every day Iranian drones are striking at our people."
He claimed that Iranian drone operators were already stationed in his country's occupied territories.
When Ukraine ultimately wins this war, he said, it will have struck a huge blow against Russian expansionism, seriously damaging its prestige and its clout.
That would in turn bring increased stability in several zones where the West has an interest - including in the Middle East region. Putin's allies would be deprived of Russian military power and weakened, he argued.
Mr Yermak gave the Mirror an insight into the President's steadfastness in the face of huge pressures.
"When the war started, several countries, and even most of his staff, advised him to leave Kyiv, where the invading Russians aimed to kill him. He refused.
"He and all our team continue to live here in the bunker. I have never seen him afraid or not knowing what to do.
"And he and I have been to the frontlines at some critical times. You cannot imagine the feelings of our soldiers when they saw our president in newly reconquered territory in eastern Ukraine.
"Or saw him near the start of the war walking in the streets of Kyiv. He is a historical model."
President Zelensky's strength, he said, stemmed from the values and examples of the family that nurtured him.
"The president is a normal person who has not changed.
It had been essential for Mr Zelensky's family to leave Kyiv, but they have remained in another, undisclosed part of Ukraine, he said.
"Volodymir is not afraid of death. I am sure not. Nor am I. We are not heroes though; our soldiers on the frontline are the real heroes."
