President Volodymyr Zelensky and his government took a new tack in Ukraine’s ongoing campaign to secure meaningful NATO nation assistance against Russian Federation (RF) invasion, punting appeals to western values and human rights, and instead pragmatically arguing that unless Ukraine is armed and financed to the hilt, now, Europe will face an endless war on its doorstep.
Zelensky’s recorded remarks, first played at a G7 summit in Berlin, were released in full by the Presidential Administration office on Friday, March 25. The G7 nations are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
The Ukrainian president during the eight-minute address repeatedly signaled Kyiv’s discontent with NATO nation rhetoric about the sanctity of human life and the importance of democratic values, while refusing to provide Ukraine anti-aircraft systems, fighter jets and heavy artillery needed to end vicious, and weeks’-long RF bombardments of Ukrainian cities and towns.
“It is better to give Ukraine the kind of weaponry support we really need now than to think about (giving) weapons for other countries later,” Zelensky said. “This is in your best interest. This is in the interests of all democracies. Because democracies must be able to defend themselves. Freedom must be armed.”
“The faster you do this, the faster there will be peace,” he said.
Zelensky’s remarks came against a background of almost a month of fierce and at times devastatingly effective Ukrainian defense against RF invasion and, in recent days, limited offensives pushing RF forces back in some sectors.
The Ukrainian leader, without mentioning Germany and other NATO nations unwilling to back Kyiv to the hilt by name, made clear Ukrainians know the difference between nations that declare their support to Ukraine, and countries that actually provide it.
“Thank you to all who are trying 100 percent to stop this war. Thank you to all who support us,” Zelensky said.
In a backhanded dismissal of NATO, Zelensky accused the Kremlin of intentionally destroying the European security system, arguing Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and the continent’s inability either to deter the attack or halt it once it began, was proof Europe needs new treaties and mechanism to guarantee a future peace. For the war to end, he said, Ukraine must have a “new system of guarantees” giving Ukraine absolute, iron-clad, and 100 percent guarantees of its borders and sovereignty.
Rejecting past Kremlin past ultimatums, Zelensky told the G7 group Ukraine will never yield territory, reject freedom or democracy, or disarm, and vowed to fight. A long war, he argued, threatens not just European security and regional political stability, but the world economy and food supply. He singled out rocking world prices for fuel and food as evidence that, even if Europe wishes it, there is no way to isolate itself from the effects of Russia’s attack on Ukraine.
Zelensky called on the G7 to stop applying half measures against Russia, and to sanction all RF businesses and senior government officials, to the maximum extent possible, immediately. The only way to peace, he argued, was a united effort by democratic nations to destroy the Kremlin’s ability to conduct its war against Ukraine now, and other wars of aggression in the future.
