Zelenski wants to convince the countries that flirt with Russia: "Victory is inevitable"

A year ago Volodimir Zelensky lived underground, tense, trying to prevent Russia from eating Ukraine in three days.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
24 February 2023 Friday 22:24
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Zelenski wants to convince the countries that flirt with Russia: "Victory is inevitable"

A year ago Volodimir Zelensky lived underground, tense, trying to prevent Russia from eating Ukraine in three days.

“It was the longest day of our lives,” he recalled from February 24, 2022. The most difficult day in our recent history. We got up early and we haven't gone back to sleep."

Today the Ukrainian president contains – with immense human sacrifice – the Kremlin army and its Wagnerian tentacles, travels abroad, has created an iconic image for himself and moves with more ease than the Russian president.

Dominating the scene, letting people take selfies with him, joking and forceful at the same time, Zelensky spoke to two hundred selected journalists from around the world yesterday in the basement of a central Kyiv hotel.

Behind him, only a message, written in Ukrainian, on the wall: “February. A year of invincibility”.

Before this sentence, the Ukrainian president made clear his intention to open up diplomatically to continents not entirely favorable to his cause – Latin America, Africa – and his willingness to meet with leaders from anywhere on the globe. Except with Vladimir Putin.

"There is nobody there [Russia] to talk to," he said when asked if he would accept a hypothetical meeting with the Russian president in Turkey.

“Please respect our right to live on our land. Get out of our territory, stop bombing us," he asked Putin. “Stop destroying all our infrastructure, energy, drinking water. Stop bombing towns and villages, killing dogs and cats, just animals, burning down forests,” he added.

"If our partners keep their word and respect [arms] deliveries, an inevitable victory awaits us," the Ukrainian president said. Victory that he does not rule out for this year.

Polish President Andrzej Duda announced yesterday that "Polish Leopard tanks have already been sent to Ukraine." Duda did not specify the number of units sent, but assured that "it is the vanguard of the international coalition" formed by several European countries to support Ukraine with heavy weapons.

The United States also took advantage of this first anniversary of the invasion to announce a new $2 billion military aid package, which includes Himars missiles, artillery ammunition and drones.

Ukraine's concern is that as the West supplies them with more and more weapons, China arms Russia for its part. “I firmly believe that China will not send weapons to the Russian Federation. For me it is important. For me it is the number one point,” Zelenski said. "I will do everything to avoid it."

"I plan to meet with Xi Jinping, and I believe that this will be beneficial for our countries and for world security," said the Ukrainian president, who sees positive elements in the peace plan proposed by Beijing.

Zelensky proposed holding a summit with "countries from all continents" after the support received at the United Nations General Assembly, where a resolution was adopted on Thursday to cease hostilities in his country and called for the withdrawal of troops. russian. He affirmed that this summit should take place in a country "that is capable of bringing together as many countries of the world as possible." A total of 141 countries voted in favor of the resolution.

The Ukrainian president indirectly alluded to the abstentions in that vote at the UN – China and India, among others – and said that his government is working “to transform this neutrality into a statute of non-neutrality towards the war”.

In addition, he said that Ukraine is working to get full Latin American and African support for the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine. In this regard, he explained that Ukraine has begun to open new embassies on both continents, where some countries continue to maintain good relations with Russia and have refused to condemn the war. Zelenski was willing yesterday to meet with Lula and the Brazilian president, to act as a mediator.

The Ukrainian president spoke of his work together with the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the three Baltic countries and Poland to create international mechanisms to prosecute war crimes such as those that the international democratic community has claimed have been committed by Russia in Ukraine.

During the press conference, the only image that was briefly projected on the wall that dominated the stage was – live – the façade of the Spanish Congress of Deputies, on which the colors of the Ukrainian flag were projected.

Ukraine, the president said in a morning statement, "did not fall in three days," but "stopped the world's second largest army" and continues to resist and believe in victory.

One year after the full-scale invasion, 95% of Ukrainians believe in victory," referring to a recent poll. If the general feelings 365 days ago were "pain and uncertainty" today, according to Zelenski, "pride" prevails over the national reaction to the invasion.

The war, beyond all these words, did not stop on the first anniversary of the invasion. Both civilians and soldiers continued to die yesterday.