Lhe Russian President Vladimir Putin “will not stop on his own”, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky insisted on Tuesday in an intervention broadcast on video in front of the European Parliament to mark the 1,000th day of the Russian invasion.
“Putin is focused on winning. It won’t stop on its own. The more time he has, the more conditions deteriorate,” Mr. Zelensky insisted in a speech receiving a long standing ovation from MEPs.
This is the “best time” to “push harder” against Russia, said the Ukrainian head of state.
“Putin remains smaller than the United States of Europe. I urge you not to forget this and not to forget everything that Europe is capable of doing,” he continued.
According to him, Russia will have no “real motivation to engage in meaningful negotiations without fire in its munitions depots on Russian territory (…), without destruction of Russian air bases, without loss of its missile production capabilities and drones and without his assets being confiscated.”
In passing, Volodymyr Zelensky scratched “certain European leaders who are thinking about national elections” rather than Ukraine.
Germany, where early legislative elections are planned for February, recently aroused the anger of kyiv due to the telephone call made by Olaf Scholz to Vladimir Putin in mid-November, for the first time in two years.
The German Social Democratic Chancellor also refuses to deliver long-range Taurus missiles, requested by Ukraine against Russia, despite Washington’s recent green light for the use of similar weapons.
In the European Parliament, the German Manfred Weber, the leader of the EPP – a right-wing party and the leading political force in this assembly – distanced himself from Mr. Scholz by asking to “now give Ukraine the necessary Taurus missiles” .
Belgium
