Ukraine’s president, Volodimir Zelensky, has urged allies to provide his country with “modern” weapons, economic support and “courage” to stand up to the “aggressiveness” of the Kremlin.
Zelensky has addressed NATO partners behind closed doors and by videoconference. In his speech, he assured that his country needs “much more modern” offensive systems and has focused on anti-missile defense systems without forgetting, he recalled, that financial support “is no less important than aid in arms”. An economic support that he has estimated at 5,000 million dollars per month.
The Ukrainian leader took advantage of the meeting in Madrid of the 30 allied countries to insist on the message that he has reiterated since the beginning of the Russian invasion and which he has emphasized in his speeches before the Parliaments of a good number of countries.
Before the NATO leaders, Zelensky recalled that Moscow receives “billions every day and spends them on war”, in clear reference to the money that Russia earns from its oil and gas exports to European countries. Faced with this, he has said, “we have a multimillion-dollar deficit and we have neither oil nor gasoline to cover it.” In this sense, he has insisted on the need for Europe to toughen up and even approve new sanction measures against Russia.
For kyiv, it is essential that the allied presence on its eastern flank be reinforced, covering, he said, what it considers “grey areas” to respond forcefully to Russian attacks. Zelensky has insisted that what is at stake is the security not only of Ukraine, but of the entire alliance, so that if Russia is considered the great “threat” to the West, neutralizing it involves giving broad and unanimous support to the country that it is now is its main objective.
Zelensky has insisted that Putin’s claim goes beyond expanding his territory at the expense of Ukraine because what Moscow wants, in his opinion, is to “dictate the conditions in Europe” and mark “the future of the world order.”
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