Former Boxer Vitali Klitschko Says He'll Take Up Arms to Defend Ukraine From Russia

Former heavyweight boxing champion Vitali Klitschko, who currently serves as the mayor of Kyiv, Ukraine, says he plans to take up arms against the invasion of the country by Russia.

"It's already a bloody war," Klitschko said Thursday on ITV's Good Morning Britain. "... I don't have another choice. I have to do that. I would fight."

Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered attacks on Ukraine beginning Thursday in what's being called the largest military attack on a country since World War II. 

"We haven't seen a conventional move like this, nation-state to nation-state, since World War II, certainly nothing on this size and scope and scale," a senior United States defense official told reporters Thursday. "And if it unfolds the way that hereto we have come to believe that it will, it has every potential to be very bloody, very costly and very impactful on European security writ large, perhaps for a long, long time to come."

Klitschko says Ukraine has not determined the number of deaths that have transpired since the invasion began, but said there are "many, many examples."

United States president Joe Biden announced a series of sanctions on Russia, saying the U.S. and allies will block funds from four major Russian banks and impose controls on exports. 

“Putin is the aggressor,” Biden told reporters. “Putin chose this war, and now he and his country will bear the consequences.”

Biden says he believes Putin plans to expand his attacks beyond Ukraine and re-form the Soviet Union. The U.S. does not currently plan to send troops into Ukraine but is expanding its foothold in NATO countries. 

Klitschko, 50, has been in office since 2014. He and his brother, former heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko, called on other countries to step in and thwart Russia's attempts to expand on the attacks.

Putin issued a statement warning other countries to not intervene or face “consequences you have never seen.”