Sandbags and soldiers as Ukraine leader gives interview under siege

FILE PHOTO: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy talks during an interview with Reuters after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine, March 1, 2022. REUTERS/Umit Bektas

KYIV (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has often done away with the trappings of office in his dealings with the media - offering access to reporters who beat him at table tennis and holding lengthy peacetime press conferences in a food court.

On Tuesday afternoon, the extraordinary circumstances of his interview with Reuters and CNN were by necessity, not choice.