Kiev: In a virtual address to the European Council summit in Brussels, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the military alliance is “yet to show what it can do to save people” in the wake of Russia’s continued war on Kiev.
In a late night address, Zelensky said that although Ukraine is not part of the 30-member defence alliance and was currently in a “grey zone between the West and Russia”, yet “we defend our common values”.
“And being in a grey zone, we are enlightened people, just like you! That helps us to defend ourselves for a month.”
As the war completed 30 days on Thursday, the President said it had been “month of heroic resistance, a month of the darkest suffering. A month, when Russia enjoyed impunity for the destruction of the peaceful state, along with it the whole global security architecture”.
He accused Russia of “investing absurd amounts of money in death, while the world invested in life”.
Zelensky went on to thank Europe for uniting in their support for Ukraine, saying that three and a half million of the people who fled Ukraine are “already in the territory of NATO countries”.
“We are grateful for the support being provided to these people.”
He, however, told European leaders that they had acted too late in stopping Russia.
Zelensky started by saying that on February 24, when Russia began its invasion, he appealed to the European leaders to close the Ukrainian airspace “to protect our people from Russian bombs and missiles”, but, “we never got a clear answer”,
As a result, “people were killed… peaceful cities were destroyed”, he said.
“Ukraine appealed to you for planes so that we would not lose so many people. You have thousands of fighter jets, but we have yet to receive one.
“You have at least 20,000 tanks. Ukraine has asked for just 1 per cent of all your tanks… But we have not received a clear answer to this request either…
“Not having clear answers is the worst thing for us, being in the war,” Zelensky added.
But the Ukrainian leader made it clear that he did not blame NATO.
“It’s not your fault, as it’s not your missiles and bombs destroying our cities… I just want you to know that the alliance can still prevent Ukrainians from dying from Russian strikes. You can save them by giving us all the weapons we need.
“Ukrainians thought that the alliance is so different from the allies… But one you’re together – you appear not strong at all. Also, we never thought that NATO could be so afraid of Russia,” he said.
He concluded his address by saying that “our needs are on the table. Peace is needed immediately. The choice is yours”.
“Ukraine never wanted this war and has not sought war. Now we just want to save our people; we just want to survive.”
–IANS