Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy delivered his keynote address at the annual global security conference on Friday, urging Western allies to move forward with arms supplies Ukraine needs to fight the Russian aggression. The Russian invasion of Ukraine is the focus of attention at this year’s Munich Security Conference.
Zelenskyyy said Ukraine will not be the “last stop” for Vladimir Putin, who will continue his aggression against other countries that are part of the USSR.
“While we are discussing the supply of tanks, the Kremlin is thinking about ways to strangle Moldova,” recalled the Ukrainian president.
He also pointed out that “the longer EU enlargement negotiations drag on, the more destruction the Kremlin can inflict” on Ukraine.
“There is no alternative to Ukrainian victory, there is no alternative to Ukraine, which is a member of the EU and NATO,” Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, setting a parallels the biblical story of David and Goliath, comparing the Russian war machine to the giant Goliath, whom the young David, the future king of Judea and Israel, “conquered not by words, but by deeds” .
Speaking at a joint press conference with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Friday, Zelenskyyy said: “We have a common understanding with the Netherlands that there should be no taboos on providing and supporting of supplying arms … to the Ukrainian military, as it supports and protects our sovereignty.”
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said on Friday that the first batch of Leopard-1A5 battle tanks has already been purchased by the Netherlands, Denmark and Germany and will soon be delivered to Ukraine.
“From the first batch [танков] will be ready for battle, it will be delivered to Ukraine, we want to do it as soon as possible,” Rutte said at a joint press conference with Zelenskyyy.
Rutte also said the Netherlands was ready to host a tribunal to try Russia’s crimes in Ukraine, adding that the idea needed more support.
The three-day Munich Security Conference, which opens today in Germany, is expected to bring together around 40 heads of state and government, as well as politicians and security experts from nearly 100 countries, including the United States, Europe and China. Zelenskyyy participates in a videoconference.
For the first time in two decades, forum organizers did not invite Russian officials. Western countries are trying to diplomatically isolate Russia as part of the invasion of Ukraine.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg will also attend the conference. Speaking to reporters ahead of the forum, he said the North Atlantic Alliance was “closely following the expansion and strengthening of relations between China and Russia”.
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said Russia’s war in Ukraine would eclipse all other issues. Western government officials and analysts say the conflict is approaching a critical phase: next week will mark exactly one year since the invasion.
The war is “not just a European conflict, it has consequences far beyond the continent,” Pistorius said. According to him, the economy around the world has felt the impact of the war on grain supplies, energy prices and inflation.
Vice President Kamala Harris is due to join French, German and British leaders in Munich today.
At the same conference last year, held days before Russian President Vladimir Putin attacked Ukraine, Harris shared warnings from Washington that Russia was about to attack a neighboring country and said: “Since the end of the cold war, this forum [впервые] summoned in such dire circumstances.”
In a speech scheduled for Saturday, the vice president will lay out the stakes of the war and why it’s important to bolster the case for maintaining U.S. support for Ukraine for as long as it takes, the White House said.
Ukraine depends on Western arms supplies to thwart Putin’s ambitions to take control of Ukrainian territories.
Zelenskyy says Ukraine – a country that upholds Western values of freedom and democracy – must be properly secured to withstand much greater Russian military power. Western countries sided with him, but were sometimes hesitant to respond to Kiev’s demands.
The Ukrainian authorities, having received the tanks and ammunition promised by the West, are now hoping for the supply of fighter jets, but some countries have so far refrained from sending them.
Franz Timmermans, executive vice-president of the Executive Committee of the European Union, said the EU, which consists of 27 countries, remains united on this issue.
“I think everyone understands how important it is for Ukraine to win this war,” Timmermans said. “It’s also important for Europe, because Putin is not only attacking Ukraine, but also us in the sense that he doesn’t support our values.”
He said it was important to make it clear that Europe will stand with Ukraine no matter how long the war lasts.
“Putin is in a dilemma,” Timmermans said, adding that the Russian leader would seek to exert serious military pressure on Ukraine in the weeks and months to come.
Timmermans also expressed hope that China could pressure Russia to end the war.
