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(NEW YORK) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he believes the war with Russia is “closer to an end” than many believe and called on allies to strengthen Ukraine’s army.

“The plan of victory is strengthening of Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said during a sit-down interview with ABC News’ Good Morning America co-anchor Robin Roberts. “That’s why we’re asking our friends, our allies, to strengthen us. It’s very important.”

Watch “Good Morning America” Tuesday at 7 a.m. ET to see more of Robin Roberts’ exclusive interview with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and first lady Olena Zelenska.

“I think that we are closer to the peace than we think,” he continued. “We are closer to the end of the war. We just have to be very strong, very strong.”

Zelenskyy spoke with Roberts as he visited New York Monday for the United Nations General Assembly this week as part of a trip to the U.S. where he has promised to present what he calls his “Victory Plan” to President Joe Biden as well as other key American political leaders.

Zelenskyy has repeatedly appealed to the United States and United Kingdom to drop their restrictions on the long-range missiles they have provided to Ukraine to strike targets deep inside Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, has warned that the use of Western weapons to strike Russian targets would be seen as a serious escalation in the war and a direct challenge by NATO nations.

Zelenskyy’s request comes amid heavy fighting in eastern Ukraine, as well as weeks into Ukraine’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk region. Ukraine said it seized hundreds of square miles and dozens of villages inside the Kursk region in the early days of its surprise offensive.

Zelenskyy told Roberts that Putin is “afraid” of the Kursk operation.

“It’s true. He’s afraid very much,” he said. “Why? Because his people saw that he can’t defend — that he can’t defend all his territory.”

The Ukrainian leader said that only from a “strong position” can Ukraine “push Putin to stop the war.”

Zelenskyy was joined by his wife, first lady Olena Zelenska, for the interview. Later this week, Zelenskyy is expected to travel to Washington to meet with Biden as well as presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.

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(LONDON) — Russia launched a major missile and drone attack on Ukraine overnight into Sunday targeting power plants and energy infrastructure across the country.

The barrage was the largest attack on Ukraine since late August and the third largest so far this year. Missiles and drones targeted cities including the capital Kyiv, forcing people into basements, subway stations and other underground shelters.

Ukrainian authorities reported that at least five people were killed.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram early Sunday that the “massive strike” targeted areas in “all regions of Ukraine.”

Zelenskyy said around 120 missiles and 90 drones were fired into the country, with Ukrainian air defenses downing more than 140 targets.

Ukraine’s air force said that at least eight Kinzhal hypersonic missiles — among Moscow’s most advanced weapons — were among the projectiles used in the attack. So too were one Zircon hypersonic cruise missile and more than 100 Kalibr cruise missiles.

The air force said Ukrainian defenders downed 144 targets — 102 missiles and 42 drones. The Russian aircraft involved in the assault included Tu-160 and Tu-95 strategic bombers, the air force said, as well as Su-34, Su-27 and MiG-31 jets.

“We are grateful to all our air defense,” the president said, noting that American-made F-16 fighter jets were involved in the defense.

Strikes and explosions were reported in Kyiv, Odesa, Zaporizhzhia, Kryvyi Rih, Dnipro and in western Ukraine. The Black Sea port city of Odesa was reportedly left without power following the strikes.

Zelenskyy said a drone impact in the southern city of Mykolaiv killed two people and injured six others, including two children.

Poland’s military, meanwhile, said the Russian missile barrage prompted it to scramble fighter jets to protect its skies.

Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko confirmed in a post to social media that the strikes were targeting Ukraine’s grid. The attack prompted authorities to impose emergency energy shutdowns in Kyiv and at least one other region.

Russia has targeted Ukraine’s grid as winter looms. The country’s centralized heating systems having been turned on in the past couple of weeks as temperatures drop below freezing. The strikes threaten to leave millions without power.

Moscow has launched missile and drone barrages against Ukraine since the beginning of the full-scale war in February 2022. Russia has generally expanded long-range strikes as winters approach hoping to collapse the Ukrainian energy grid.

This year appears no different, with recent months bringing an intensification of drone and missile attacks across the country as the change in U.S. administration prompts talk of renewed peace negotiations.

Zelenskyy told Radio Ukraine on Saturday that Kyiv expects Russia to “continue combined strikes” through the winter period. “We need to prepare for everything,” he added.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said the attack was Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “true response” to recent conversations with world leaders — an apparent jab at German Chancellor Olaf Scholz who spoke with Putin Friday for the first time in two years, against Ukraine’s objections.

“Russia launched one of the largest air attacks: drones and missiles against peaceful cities, sleeping civilians, critical infrastructure,” Sybiha said. “This is war criminal Putin’s true response to all those who called and visited him recently. We need peace through strength, not appeasement.”

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(LONDON )– As Jahanzeb Wesa fled toward the Pakistani border in the middle of the night, he wondered if his career defending human rights would help protect him now that he was a refugee himself.

A 28-year-old Afghan journalist and women’s rights advocate, Wesa said he was attacked by a Taliban fighter while covering a women’s rights protest just after the fall of Kabul in August 2021. If he didn’t make it across the border, he said, he knew he would likely be killed.

“We worked for 20 years for a better future for Afghanistan,” he recalled thinking. “Why did we lose everything?”

But arriving in a new country brought no sense of safety.

Following the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, some Afghan journalists said they have been in limbo waiting for humanitarian visas while living in exile in Pakistan, where they fled across the shared border when Kabul fell.

The Taliban’s violent suppression of criticism, along with draconian crackdowns on women’s rights, meant journalists who stayed in Afghanistan were at constant risk of being detained, tortured, disappeared or killed.

In Pakistan, unable to legally work and threatened with deportation through government ultimatums and face-to-face interactions, some Afghan journalists applied for visas from countries that promised to help Afghan refugees.

Almost three years later, many said they still have not received a decision.

In the meantime, their prospects in Pakistan are dire, several told ABC News.

Life in Pakistan

Several Afghan journalists living in Pakistan told ABC News that their fear of deportation is omnipresent.

Khatera, a journalist from northern Afghanistan who asked ABC News not to publish her last name for her safety, fled to Pakistan in April 2022 after the Taliban raided her newsroom, destroying radios and TVs.

“After that,” she said, “everything was a nightmare.”

Like many Afghan journalists in Pakistan, Khatera arrived on a tourist visa she had to renew every six months through a private travel agent. Visa renewals were sometimes denied without reason, and officials often asked for bribes, she said.

The Pakistani government did not reply to a request for comment.

Housing, health care and transportation in Pakistan can be prohibitively expensive for Afghans, whose tourist visas don’t allow them to work. Many rely on depleting savings, support from family members, or under-the-table jobs, according to those who spoke to ABC News. Given the economic strain, the biannual visa fee and the corresponding bribes present significant burdens, they said.

But not having proper documentation can bring serious consequences. “Anywhere you’re going, the police are asking about your valid documents,” said Khatera. They sometimes conduct nighttime home check-ins and try to deport those who can’t provide valid papers, she said.

Those disruptions to daily life don’t appear to be unique to journalists. A 2023 Human Rights Watch report declared a “humanitarian crisis” of Pakistani authorities committing widespread abuses, including mass detentions and property seizures, against Afghans in Pakistan. Over a month and a half, the report said, Pakistani authorities deported 20,000 Afghans and coerced over 350,000 more to leave on their own.

Afghan journalists regularly receive death threats from the regime at home over social media, Wesa said. “If I’m deported to Afghanistan,” he said, “the Taliban is waiting for me.”

“No journalist has been condemned to torture, disappearance, or death by the government of Afghanistan,” said a spokesperson for the Taliban-run Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, adding that “all citizens of the country are equal in the eyes of the law regardless of their position and profession.”

Some journalists said they also face a widespread mental health crisis. Rahman, an Afghan journalist who asked ABC News to use his middle name due to what he described as ongoing threats from the Taliban, struggles with worsening depression and anxiety. He said he fears for himself and his family, still in Kabul.

“It’s daily mental torture,” he said.

An endless wait

The conditions in Pakistan have spurred many Afghan journalists to apply for humanitarian visas from the U.S., Australia, the U.K. and other European countries. Yet, some have not heard back for about three years.

Wesa applied for an Australian humanitarian visa on Jan. 4, 2022, six months after he arrived in Pakistan. He supplemented his application with support letters from Reporters Without Borders, Amnesty International and other nongovernmental organizations stating his life was at risk, he told ABC News.

More than two years after filing his initial application, he has received a confirmation of receipt but no further updates, he said.

A departmental spokesperson from the Australian Department of Home Affairs said they “expect it will take at least 6 years from the date of receipt for processing to commence on [the applications] lodged in 2022, 2023, or 2024.”

“We will wait – there is no other way,” Wesa said in response. “I hope they help us as soon as possible.”

“Day by day, I’m faced with depression and health issues,” he said. “My only hope is that Australia will save my life.”

Rahman, who reported on women’s rights in Afghanistan, is saving up to apply for a family visa from Australia, where his fiancée lives. The process costs over $9,000. He said he believes a humanitarian visa application will not receive a response.

Requests for help from the French embassy and the U.N. have also yielded no results, he said.

“I believe these countries have always been for freedom and for democracy. They can help out,” he said. “I just wonder why it takes such a long time.”

Khatera applied for a visa from the Swiss embassy. It took a year and a half to receive the file number, she said. She was told she needed close relatives in the country, but otherwise, they would likely not be able to help.

“I’m getting depression,” she said. “I’m just trying to fight.”

Every Afghan journalist in exile interviewed by ABC News said they continue to receive threats from the Taliban over social media and fear for their lives every day.

The Taliban denied sending the threats, saying “the government and officials of Afghanistan have not threatened any journalists.”

Broken promises

Afghan journalists waiting in worsening conditions for responses to their visa applications said they feel that Western countries have broken their promises to help Afghan refugees.

The United States expanded a resettlement program for Afghan refugees in 2021 to include journalists and humanitarian workers who had helped the United States. However, as of 2023, The Associated Press reported that only a small portion of applicants had been resettled.

The U.S. State Department did not respond to a request for comment.

The Afghan Pro Bono Initiative, a partnership providing free legal representation to Afghan refugees, published a 2023 report entitled “Two Years of Empty Promises.” The report found that the U.K. resettlement programs for Afghan refugees were fraught with delays, understaffing, administrative hurdles, narrow eligibility and technical issues.

Earlier this year, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and other NGOs called on Western countries to adopt prima facie refugee status for Afghan women and girls, which would grant refugee status without the need for individual assessments, potentially streamlining the application process and decreasing lengthy wait times.

Despite the dragging wait times and the pervasive hopelessness, many of the 170 Afghan journalists in exile in Pakistan continue to speak out against the Taliban.

Wesa’s X account includes frequent posts about Afghanistan — legal updates, protest videos and women singing to resist what they describe as draconian Taliban policies.

“In any country, I will stand for Afghan women,” he said. “I will risk my life for them.”

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