Ukraine’s president on Thursday insisted on the need for European Union member states to work with the country at a rate faster than Russia to re-equip itself and asked for sanctions against Russia’s nuclear power.
“The ability to deepen our collaborative dynamics must outpace our aggressor’s ability to mobilize”said Volodymyr Zelensky at the beginning of a meeting of the European Council in Brussels (Belgium).
Flanked by the President of the Council, Charles Michel, Zelensky thanked the presidents and prime ministers of the 27 countries for the “unconditional support” the country has received since the start of the war almost a year ago: the successive packages of sanctions, the reception of refugees, humanitarian and economic-financial aid and, above all, the armaments used to counter the Moscow offensive.
And he insisted on the request he made in recent weeks: “We need artillery, ammunition, tanks, long-range missiles and fighter jets.”
The 10th sanctions package will be ready in principle on February 24 and the President of Ukraine insisted on the need to include Russian nuclear power: “Do you think it’s fair not to have sanctions when Russia threatens with a nuclear cloud?”he wondered.
Volodymyr Zelensky also announced that he had recently spoken with the President of Moldova about an alleged Kremlin plan to destroy neighboring Ukraine.
“When I received this document, I immediately warned Moldova about this threat to protect it. I believe you would all do the same. I don’t know if Moscow gave the order to go ahead with this plan, but it is very similar to the one they wanted to implement in Ukraine”he added.
Zelensky recalled the pioneers of the European Union Robert Schumann and Jean Monnet and believed that the ideal they created “needed another component, without which everything is weak: security”.
And he called for a “joint transformation” between the 27 and the countries that aspire to be part of the Union, namely Ukraine: “If we succeed, your names will go down in history along with those of Schumann and Monnet. “
Ukraine “never wanted this war, never wanted a war”, continued Zelensky, and “always tried to keep the peace”, but today the support of the entire European Union is needed so that “Europe remains united”, with an “independent Ukraine” . , an independent Moldova, an independent Georgia and all the other states that are part of the European family”.
Ukrainian leader wants sanctions on drones, missiles, calls for fighter jets
Ukraine’s president on Thursday urged the European Union (EU) to include the “drone and missile industry” in sanctions against Russia and will urge every member state to send fighter jets.
“It is in everyone’s interest, not just the Ukrainians, that Russia fails to produce more missiles to attack our cities,” Volodymyr Zelensky said at a joint press conference with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. , and the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, in Brussels (Belgium).
So Zelensky urged the 27 to include in the next package “sanctions against the ‘drone’ and missile industries” as well as the “technological support that supports Russian terror”.
An EU decision in this regard will “reduce destruction and remove the source of dangerous attacks by Moscow,” he argued.
Source: DN
