President Volodymyr Zelensky called on March 29 on western nations to impose the harshest sanctions possible on the Russian Federation (RF) now, and not to wait for the Kremlin to hit Ukraine with chemical weapons.
“We have gone down this road before. (Before the war) we said that powerful, preventative sanctions were needed to prevent a Russian Federation invasion,” he said, in a national statement published by the Office of the President. “A preventative package of sanctions was not put into effect, and the threat of sanctions did not stop Russian invasion and a war.”
“Ukraine will never agree to passive sanctions…as a way of containing Russia,” he said.
Kyiv in the run-up to the RF invasion, and in days following it, has argued sanctions triggered only by RF escalation have little deterrent effect, as it allows the Kremlin not only to decide when it will face new sanctions, but to take pre-emptive steps to prepare for them.
Western nations led by Germany and France have argued preventative sanctions, applied prior to a new RF aggressive act, are bad for business and might antagonize the Kremlin.
Zelensky said that nations serious about limiting RF aggression need to impose an immediate embargo on all RF energy exports.
The present NATO and western nation collective position regarding such move, that a total embargo on RF energy exports should only be imposed if the Kremlin uses weapons of mass destruction like chemical weapons on Ukraine, Zelensky said, is at once absurd and insulting to Ukrainians fighting for their freedom.
“I simply don’t have any words,” Zelensky said. “You have to wonder how thinking came to the conclusion, that the only way to trigger those (energy) sanctions is if chemical weapons are used on us. We (Ukrainians) are living human beings, after all. You (Western nations) shouldn’t wait. Are you saying Russia hasn’t (already) done enough to merit an energy embargo? Phosphorus bombs, that’s not enough? Bombardments of chemical plants and atomic power stations, that’s not enough?”
Zelensky said that sanctions need to be effective and not just declarations by senior western politicians friendly to Russian business interests, but needing to placate voters calling for more support to Ukraine.
He said that this week he will meet with leaders or speak to the legislatures of Denmark, Norway, Netherlands, Greece and Australia, and that a top priority will be to make public statements to voters in those countries about the actual state of support to Ukraine from those countries.
If necessary, he said, Ukraine will call on voters in western nations to take to the streets and the ballot boxes, to reverse longstanding pro-Russia politics and to confront RF aggression.
“Ukrainians should not have to die because others are afraid,” he said.
Ukraine this week will set up a review board manned by Ukrainian and international financial experts to create a reliable data base, by country, on sanctions in place against Russia, and assistance provided Ukraine, Zelensky said.
