Russia’s bloodbath in Ukraine could lead to World War III, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned Sunday.
He accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of “lighting fires” around the world that risk getting out of control, and said the October 7 attack unleashed on Israel by Hamas terrorists in October was a “really big wish.” from Moscow.
And he also accused the Kremlin of provoking problems in the Balkans.
He said: “We believe that now they are preparing in the Balkans, they are taking new steps,” Zelensky said. “And we believe they are trying to train or even train some people.”
“The idea is to start a conflict and they don’t succeed, they don’t try to stop it.”
‘They won’t stop’
Speaking from his office in kyiv, Zelensky warned: “Ukraine today is at the center of these global risks of this Third World War.
President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of “lighting fires” around the world that risk getting out of control and accused the Kremlin of stirring up trouble in the Balkans.Volodymyr Zelenskyy/Instagram
“And I really believe that Russia will push until the United States and China together tell them very, very seriously to get out of the conflict. [our] territory.”
He said the war in Israel had diverted the world from Ukraine, which “does not help” his cause.
And he highlighted Moscow’s ties to Hamas supporters in Iran, who have boosted Russia’s war effort by supplying deadly kamikaze drones.
Up to 600,000 people have been killed or injured in Ukraine – most of them Russian soldiers – since Putin launched his full-scale invasion on February 24 last year.
Zelensky admitted that Ukraine’s fighting this year had not gone as well as he had hoped.
NewsCorp Chairman and Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch met with Zelensky in kyiv, Ukraine. Instagram/Volodymyr Zelenskyy Murdoch and Fox News reporter Benjamin Hall, injured in Ukraine, spoke with the Ukrainian president. Instagram/Volodymyr Zelenskyy
His troops have only advanced 10 miles since launching a counteroffensive in June.
The lack of progress has eroded support from some of Ukraine’s allies and fueled doubts about whether Zelensky will ever achieve his stated ambition of expelling Russian soldiers from all Ukrainian soil.
He has repeatedly said he wants to retake Crimea, which was captured by Russia in 2014, and regain Ukraine’s 1991 independence borders.
Congress blocked a White House plan to unlock $60 billion in aid to Ukraine for fear of funding an “endless stalemate.”
And Slovakia’s new government blocked a $43 million military aid package, saying its people had “bigger problems.”
But Zelensky vowed to continue fighting Russia and insisted that Ukraine would expel Russian troops if it continued to receive adequate help.
Britain has pledged more than £7 billion and has promised to continue helping Ukraine for as long as it takes to defeat Russia.
The EU has signed an aid agreement for 50 billion euros that will last until 2027.
Zelensky thanked allies for their support but insisted it was “not enough.”
Sun reporter Jerome Starkey also joined the discussion alongside Murdoch and Hall. Instagram / Volodymyr Zelenskyy It was Hall’s first trip back to the war-torn country since he narrowly survived a Russian attack while covering the invasion last year. X/Nana Sajaia
He said Ukraine desperately needed more air defense weapons to protect civilians in cities and allow soldiers to advance on the front.
In an impassioned plea, he said kyiv would find a way to buy, rent or co-produce weapons if allies were no longer willing to give them to them.
Zelensky: “If you don’t want to or you can’t. Well. Co-production. Just give us licenses. We will find money. We only need air defense on the front line.”
Russia has launched around 4,000 missiles since the start of the full-scale war and is urgently increasing production to try to replenish its stockpile.
Zelensky said millions of Ukrainian refugees would return if he could protect the country’s largest cities if they were safe from Russian bombing.
He said: “They will work and pay taxes. It will fill a gap in our budget. “We won’t need as much financial help.”
But he warned that without Western help Ukraine could not win.
He said: “If Western countries do not give us this support, it is their decision,” he said. “Our military and financial forces [resources] “It will not be enough to stay and defend Ukraine.”
He reminded NATO allies that Ukrainians were paying with their lives, saying: “We are losing our people, not Europeans or Americans. Of course, I do not wish you to lose your soldiers.”
Zelensky warned that without Western help Ukraine could not win.REUTERS “Ukraine today is at the center of these global risks of this Third World War,” Zelensky said. Russian Defense Ministry/AFP via Getty Images
He warned that if Russia defeated Ukraine, NATO countries would be next, saying: “If they kill us, if they destroy us, they will occupy the NATO countries very quickly, and after that you will transfer your soldiers.
“If they don’t mobilize their soldiers to fight for NATO against Russia, NATO won’t do it.”
Peace plans
Ukraine’s defenders shocked the world when they stopped the Russian juggernaut in the first weeks of Putin’s invasion and rolled back the Kremlin’s advances around kyiv, Kharkiv and Kherson.
But the front lines have not changed much in a year, and there is growing awareness that the war in Ukraine will not end quickly.
Former President Donald Trump, who hopes to run for the White House next year, has claimed he could end the war in one day if he is re-elected in the 2024 election.
Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion on February 24 last year. POOL/AFP via Getty Images
Zelensky said he was ready to meet with Trump. He said:.
“If you have a real plan, please show it to us,” he said.
But he added that there were “enough words” in this war.
Zelensky added that any plan in which Ukraine hands over the eastern Donbas region and the occupied Crimean peninsula to Moscow is not a peace plan: it is a capitulation.
“Our country will not be prepared for such a peace plan,” he said. “That is not a peace plan. This means ending the war on the part of Russia.”
He also warned that such a plan would fail because Russia would seize the territory, build up forces and attack again, just as they had done after the invasion of Crimea in 2014 and the most recent invasion last year.
Jerome Starkey is the defense editor of the UK Sun.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn