The wife of the Ukrainian president, Olena Zelenska, accused Russia on Tuesday in Lisbon of putting technology “at the service of terror” and asked the innovation sector for help.
“Russia is putting technology at the service of terror and what we see today is the result of the use of this technology,” he said, at the end of the opening ceremony of the Web Summit technology event, after showing images of the destruction left by a missile in the Ukrainian capital, kyiv.
Zelenska, who was announced as a guest at the Web Summit just Tuesday afternoon for security reasons, said Russian techies who previously worked in the private sector are now collaborating in the war against Ukraine and asked businessmen for help.
“Others can help us fight them [russos] and stop this terror”, he alluded, pointing out that “technology must be used to save and help people, not to destroy”.
“You are the force that moves the world”, he underlined, addressing the audience at the Web Summit’s main venue, made up mainly of businessmen.
Ukraine’s first lady lamented that schools in the country, invaded by Russia eight months ago, are funneling money to buy generators instead of investing in high-tech education.
In a second speech during the ceremony, which preceded that of Olena Zelenska, who received a standing ovation at the end, Web Summit founder and CEO Paddy Cosgrave called for Ireland, his home country, to stop “funding the oligarchs Russians”.
The seventh edition of the Web Summit, which will last until Friday, has more than 70,000 participants, 2,630 startups and companies, 1,120 investors and 1,040 speakers.
The technological event, which was born in 2010 in Ireland, began to be held in the Parque das Nações area, in Lisbon, in 2016 and will remain in the Portuguese capital until 2028.
Source: TSF
