On the thousandth day of the war in Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky urged the European Union to toughen up its tone towards his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
ADVERTISEMENT
On the thousandth day of the war in Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky spoke in front of the European Parliament. The deputies gave him an ovation, and on this highly symbolic day, the Ukrainian president recalled the need to establish a balance of power against Moscow, after more than two and a half years of conflict.
We must “keep up the pressure” on Russian President Vladimir Putin, and deprive him of his “money and his power” to force him to begin “serious negotiations” and thus end the war, believes he.
“Putin places no value on people or laws. Only money and power count in his eyes. And this is what we must deprive him of in order to restore peace,” declared the Ukrainian president in front of the European deputies, via screen.
During his six-minute speech, Mr. Zelensky called on political leaders not to be distracted by the elections and to focus on weakening Russia's military capabilities, recently strengthened by the arrival of nearly 11,000 North Korean soldiers to fight alongside Russian soldiers in the Kursk region.
This North Korean contingent, Mr. Zelensky warned on Tuesday, could soon reach 100,000 men. (Bloomberg has cité the same figure, citing G20 sources).
The direct involvement of North Korea constituted an additional step, and would have prompted American President Joe Biden to renounce its long-standing vetoauthorizing Ukraine to strike Russian territory further inland, using ATACMS missiles supplied by the United States. Germany, however, maintained its opposition to the supply of long-range Taurus missiles.
Volodymyr Zelensky asked his allies to allow Ukraine to fire on military depots, air bases and missile factories located on Russian soil. He also called for tougher sanctions against the Russia's “ghost fleet”, which Moscow uses to circumvent the sanctions imposed on its hydrocarbon trade, and the freezing of Russian assets.
“Don’t forget what Europe is capable of achieving,” Volodymyr Zelensky said to MEPs, presenting his proposals to “put pressure on Russia in favor of a just peace.”
“Every blow and every threat from Russia must be responded to with firm sanctions,” he added.
Volodymyr Zelensky, who delivered his speech in English, thanked the European Parliament for its constant support and for “ensuring that not a single one of the thousand days of this terrible war becomes a day of betrayal of the European values we share “.
“We have proven that these values are not just words, nor something abstract. European values and the European way of life, when translated into action, protect people's lives in concrete terms,” he said. continued Mr. Zelensky.
MEPs gave Mr. Zelenskyy a standing ovation, before and after his pin in the colors of the Ukrainian flag. In the past, the Ukrainian president has spoken several times in front of the European Parliament, notably in the first days of the invasion. “No one will break us,” he said then.
Roberta Metsola, the president of the European Parliament, praised Mr Zelensky's “bravery” and insisted any peace deal should be based “on justice and dignity”. “Nothing [de ce qui sera décidé] about Ukraine [ne se fera] without Ukraine'”.
“Today we send a message loud and clear: we support Ukraine, until freedom, and until true peace [soient obtenues]”, assured Roberta Metsola.
The 1,000-day conflict milestone comes at a critical time for Ukraine, as Russian troops make significant advances in the country's east and Moscow intensifies his strikes against the country's energy infrastructure, which many see as a strategy aimed at triggering a humanitarian crisis during the winter.
ADVERTISEMENTThese thousand days of conflict also arrive in a context of uncertainty, while Donald Trump is preparing his return to the White House, the President-elect having continued to hammer home, during his campaign, his desire to break with military aid and American financial aid granted so far to Ukraine, and to conclude an agreement to end the war within “24 hours”, without giving details on how he intended to achieve this.
