MYKOLAIV, Ukraine — The Ukrainian military stiffened defenses Sunday against Russian assaults in the east and south as civilians continued to flee the country in vast numbers and the nation’s president framed the war as an existential threat to all of European democracy.
“The whole European project is a target for Russia,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video address, labeling the conflict raging in Ukraine a “catastrophe” that will “inevitably” spread elsewhere in Europe.
“Russian aggression was not intended to be limited to Ukraine alone, to the destruction of our freedom and our lives alone,” he said.
