The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy yesterday appealed for more weapons and ‘maximum’ sanctions against Russia, while speaking during the ongoing Davos summit, lamenting that tens of thousands of lives would have been saved had countries acted faster.
Appearing by video-link, Zelenskyy delivered the headline speech to the first World Economic Forum to be held in the Swiss Alps in more than two years after the Covid pandemic derailed the event.
The conflict shows ‘that support to the country under attack is more valuable the sooner it is provided: weapons, funding, political support, and sanctions against Russia,’ said Zelenskyy, who received a standing ovation.
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Flanked by Ukrainian flags and wearing an olive-green T-shirt, he said through an interpreter that if Kyiv had received ‘100 percent of our needs at once back in February, the result would have been tens of thousands of lives saved’.
‘This is why Ukraine needs all the weapons that we ask for, not just the ones that have been provided,’ he said, adding that 87 people were killed in a May 17 strike by Russia on a military base in northern Ukraine.
Anastasia Radina, a Ukrainian lawmaker, told reporters that her country needs ‘NATO-style’ weapons, including tanks and ground-based air defence systems.
‘What we are looking for most importantly are fighter jets and this has been the most difficult discussion,’ she said.
‘Three months into the war, and tens of thousands lives lost, we are still at the point of discussing if we need fighter jets. Frankly speaking this is outrageous.’
Ukraine is receiving howitzers ‘but that is not yet enough’, she said.
Zelensky called for an oil embargo on Russia, punitive measures against all its banks, and the shunning of its IT sector, adding that all foreign companies should leave the country.
‘There should not be any trade with Russia,’ he told the gathering.
‘I believe there are still no such sanctions against Russia — and there should be.’
WEF founder Klaus Schwab praised Zelensky for his ‘courageous leadership’ and said Davos participants were eager to hear how they could assist Ukraine “because everybody is affected by what’s happening in your country’.
Western powers have imposed a slew of sanctions on Russia.
More than 50 heads of state or government are among the 2,500 delegates at the WEF under the title ‘History at a Turning Point’.
When the WEF last took place in Davos in January 2020, the coronavirus was just brewing in China before morphing into a devastating pandemic.
A Davos forum took place virtually last year, with Russian President Vladimir Putin among the speakers.